Tb 



e (5)ee- 



eepeps' lieVieCLi 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tl^e Iqterests of Hoqey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 

 W. Z. HDTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL VII 



FLINT, MICHIGAN, DtC, 10, 



)4. 



NO, 12. 



Work at jVCidiigan's 



Experimental 



^piarv. 



K. L. TAYLOR, APIABIST. 

 FEEDING BACK. 



yEEDINGback 

 V" honey to the 

 bees, to enable 

 them to com- 

 pletely- fill and 

 cap over those 

 sections upon 

 which work was 

 arrested midway 

 on ar-count of the 

 interruption of 

 the lioney flow 

 leaving them un- 

 fit for market in their then present shape 

 and of considerably less value than honey to 

 be extracted from brood combs on account 

 of the undue proportion of work to extract 

 them, is a practice which, while it is not 

 likely to become by any means universal 

 among producers of comb honey, is yet 

 likely to be adhered to to no inconsiderable 

 extent by such as have once had experience 

 with it, especially if the locality is one where 

 from lack of nectar producing flowers in 

 August the bees are likely to cease the rear- 

 ing of brood so early in the season as to 

 make the prosperity of the colony the fol- 



lowing spring altogether problematical on 

 account of the fact that its population is too 

 aged to be relied upon with certainty to suc- 

 cessfully undergo the vicissitudes of the 

 weather in the performance of spring work. 

 It has therefore been thought of sufficient 

 importance to warrant the contii'uance of 

 the experiments which were instituted last 

 year touching this subject. 



By the adoption of this practice of feeding 

 there are important gains outside of the 

 completion of the unfinished sections. I 

 find the most important of these as uniform- 

 ly shown in each of the individual colonies 

 employed in the experiment botli this year 

 and last to be the improveuient which takes 

 place in the condition of the colonies both in 

 numerical strength as well as in the much 

 greater proportion of young bees which are 

 points of prime importance in the success- 

 ful winte ing of bees in this latitude, par- 

 ticularly if they are the result of feeding 

 continued well along through the mouth of 

 August. Another gain of no mean impor- 

 tance in an extensive apiary is the avoidance 

 of the tedious fussy labor of extracting the 

 honey from unfinished sections. This labor 

 to be sure is rendered comparatively easy if 

 performed at once on the early removal of 

 the sections from the hives, a course which 

 is not considered desirable if the highest 

 condition of the salable sections is had in 

 view, and is, bes des, not always possible 

 practically unless the apiary is a small one 

 and other work slack. 



