1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



335 



that more wax could be produced 

 from a given amount of food when 

 pollen was available than when it 

 was not to be had. This is not be- 

 cause of the use of pollen in the 

 actual production of wax, but be- 

 cause pollen appears necessary to 

 sustain the bees during wax produc- 

 tion. 



Now that most of our colleges 

 have experimental departments and 

 practical apiarists, we should, before 

 long, have some very useful infor- 

 mation on the most profitable use of 

 already-built combs and comb foun- 

 dation. Will Mr. Davis and others 

 make further experiments on the 

 lines we indicate? 



The Government has met every 

 reasonable demand of the beekeepers 

 and it is important for the good of 

 the industry that every violation of 

 the rules be reported. 



The Sugar Situation 



There are many localities where 

 the bees will not have sufficient 

 honey for winter without feeding. 

 Fortunately, the Food Administra- 

 tion has seen fit to provide for this 

 emergency by making provision to 

 supply the needs of the beekeepers. 

 By the time this issue reaches our 

 readers bees should be prepared for 

 winter in northern localities, al- 

 though it will not be too late to feed 

 needy colonies. 



Beekeepers who have harvested a 

 crop of honey should in no case ap- 

 ply for sugar to feed the bees. The 

 fact that beekeepers who have honey 

 for sale find it necessary to buy 

 sugar will certainly tend to throw 

 suspicion on the craft. The publicity 

 that has necessarily come in connec- 

 tion with the provision for supplying 

 beekeepers with sugar to save their 

 bees, has already created a suspicion 

 in many minds that bees are fed with 

 sugar for the purpose of making 

 honey for sale. American beekeep- 

 ers as a class are patriotic and are 

 prepared to make any necessary sac- 

 rifice to win the war. It is reported, 

 however, that a few individuals who 

 have harvested a crop are disposed to 

 take advantage of the general situ- 

 ation and extract all their honey for 

 sale and feed the bees with sugar for 

 winter. Such action would be very 

 unfortunate, for it might result in the 

 supply of sugar, necessary to feed 

 needy colonies, being withdrawn by 

 the Food Administration on a mis- 

 impression. It might also result in 

 the prosecution of the guilty bee- 

 keeper, for the public is in no mood 

 now, when every nerve is being 

 strained to win the war, to trifle with 

 those who turn national necessity to 

 private profit. 



Sugar Versus Honey 



We are informed that the Food 

 Administration is allowing 100% of 

 needed sugar for feeding bees that 

 may be short for winter and 50% per 

 cent of normal supply for "honey 

 manufacture." Inasmuch as the 

 adulteration of food is strictly pro- 

 hibited, we can see no earthly rea- 

 son for allowing any sugar for arti- 

 ficially manufacturing a product 

 which cannot under any excuse be 

 called honey, even if it contains 50% 

 of real honey. There is evidently a 

 misapprehension on the part of the 

 Food Administration as to what con- 

 stitutes honey. 



Several of our beekeepers have 

 written us that they find great oppo- 

 sition among consumers to the per- 

 mitting of sugar being used in any 

 quantity whatever to feed bees. Evi- 

 dently the public is unable to dis- 

 criminate betVveen bee feeding and 

 honey adulteration. We are writing 

 this article for the purpose of help- 

 ing the beekeepers in making the 

 matter clear to the consumer. 



Pure honey is the product of flow- 

 ers only. When the flowers are want- 

 ing, or when they constain no nectar, 

 owing to drought, excessive moisture, 

 etc., the bees are sometimes unable 

 to secure enough honey to carry 

 them over winter. At least 25 pounds 

 of honey is necessary for the pur- 

 pose. Neither molasses, nor com- 

 mercial glucose, nor corn syrup, can 

 be used, as they are either rejected 

 by the bees or, if used by them, make 

 them sick and bring about the death 

 of the colony. Pure cane sugar, di- 

 luted with half of its weight of water 

 is the only possible substitute for 

 honey. So when the bees are short 

 of stores, as they are in many places 

 during the present season, sugar syr- 

 up is indispensable to keep them 

 alive. 



Do beekeepers feed bees sugar to 

 make honey? They do not, for two 

 reasons. The first is that sugar syr- 

 up fed to the bees is still sugar syr- 

 up. Its chemical condition is not 

 changed and it lacks the flavor, the 

 essential oils which the flowers alone 

 can give. A man feeding his bees 

 sugar syrup and trying to sell it as 

 honey would be liable to arrest for 

 adulteration. 



The second reason why sugar is 

 not fed to bees for profit is that 

 when it is used in large quantities as 

 bee feed, there is a large consump- 

 tion of it by the bees to build comb 

 and to rear brood. This is highly 

 unprofitable. Experiments conducted 

 at different times, for a century past, 

 one of which is published in the cur- 

 rent number of the American Bee 

 Journal, show that if the bees use 

 any sugar syrup for this purpose, it 

 costs them from 16 to 25 pounds of 

 sugar for every pound of comb se- 

 cured. Feeding to keep bees from 

 starving allows them only to fill the 

 combs already built and the feeding 

 does not last long enough to induce 

 them to breed to any extent or to 

 build additional combs. But a plen- 

 tiful feeding, such as would be neces- 

 sary to secure a surplus, would in- 

 duce them to rear brood and to build 

 additional combs, seal the cells, etc. 

 This would more than balance the 

 difference in price. 



It is, therefore, neither profitable, 

 nor honest, nor safe, to feed bees in 

 order to get honey for sale. The 

 adulterer has a shorter method of 

 mixing honey and syrup without the 

 help of the bees. This is forbidden 

 by law. No food product may be 

 sold under any but its real name. 



California and the 

 Western Honey Bee. 



We read in the "Western Honey 

 Bee" that, according to Mr. Geo. S. 

 Demuth, of the Washington Bureau 

 of Entomology, California has now 

 about two million colonies of bees, 

 producing about a thousand carloads 

 of honey annually. The beekeepers 

 of California who have been having 

 hard sailing in years past, when 

 honey sold, at times, as low as 3 

 cents per pound, ought to have 

 smooth sailing for some time to 

 come. 



And, by the way, we should urge 

 the California honey producer to 

 read the "Western Honey Bee." It is 

 a neat little magazine, well managed 

 and interesting. J. D. Bixby, its edi- 

 tor, will make a valuable paper of it, 

 and he is not paying us for saying 

 that, either. 



New Bulletins on Wintering 



Two new bulletins are just now is- 

 sued by the U. S. Department of Ag- 

 riculture, Farmers' Bulletin 1012, 

 "The Preparation of Bees for Out- 

 door Wintering and," and 1014, 

 "Wintering Bees in Cellars." Write 

 the Secretary of Agriculture at 

 Washington for either of these bul- 

 letins. 



