378 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



er needs to be educated and inter- 

 ested to induce him to bring lioney 

 to the notice of liis customers. Ex- 

 hibits and bee demonstrations at 

 fairs, popular lectures and articles 

 in the press, newspaper and maga- 

 zine advertising, all play an impor- 

 tant part. 



In conclusion let me summarize: 



apicultural education must take 

 into account the producer, the dis- 

 tributor and the consumer. As far 

 as possible the producer should be 

 his own distributor and should 

 take his part in educating the con- 

 sumer. An increased interest on 

 the part of producers increases the 

 distribution and the consumption. 



The Feeding of Sugar to Bees 



By S. D. CHAP]\IAN, ]\Laiicelona, Mich. 



Given at the Northern 



Michigan Convention, Petoskey, Michigan 

 March 1914 



Feeding sugar to our bees is a 

 subject I have been watching pretty 

 closely for a number of years. In 

 fact I have had quite a large ex- 

 perience in feeding sugar to my bees 

 as well as experimenting along 

 these lines. In discussing this sub- 

 ject I wish to confine myself strict- 

 ly to our specialists that are run- 

 ning their bees for extracted honey. 

 We all know that colonies run for 

 comb honey are in better condition 

 for winter than colonies run for ex- 

 tracted, where we take all of the 

 honey from the upper stories. 



First, is it profitable to take all 

 the honey from our bees and then 

 feed sugar for winter stores? One 

 pound of sugar made into syrup is 

 hardly equal to one pound of seal- 

 ed honey as a winter food for our 

 bees. Some five or six years ago in 

 my home yard I had plenty of solid 

 combs of honey to feed over 100 

 colonies. This left about 7 colonies 

 with scarcely any honey. It was 

 very warm and dry that fall and no 

 honey came in after July 15th. I 

 fed those 70 colonies on sugar 

 syrup to carry them through till 

 they could make their own living 

 the next June. I could see no dif- 

 ference so far as the wintering of 

 these colonies was concerned. But 

 the following spring was very early 

 and it remained warm till just the 

 time willow and soft maple were 

 coming in bloom. Then it turned 

 cold, and we had over one foot of 

 snow and really, we had severe 

 winter weather. Our bees got no 

 pollen from any source during 



this period. After while it turned 

 warm and the fruit trees were just 

 coming in bloom when it turned 

 cold again and for twenty-six days 

 our apple trees were in full bloom, 

 the weather remaining a little above 

 the freezing point during most of 

 this time. Consequently our bees 

 got no pollen till after the 2 0th of 

 June. It was a remarkable season. 

 But it gave us a chance to com- 

 pare those colonies building up on 

 natural stores with those fed sugar 

 syrup. At the close of the season, 

 as near as I could judge the col- 

 onies on natural stores brought in 

 about forty per cent more honey 

 than those fed on sugar syrup. It 

 is just as necessary that bees have 

 pollen, as it is honey, to build breed 

 up in the spring of the year. If 

 they have nothing but sugar stores 

 and no pollen comes in, brood rear- 

 ing stops. While the colony with 

 natural stores will do some breeding. 

 More than h::lf our season in north- 

 ern Michigan, bees cannot get the 

 pollen they require to build up rap- 

 idly in spring. For this reason 

 every beekeeper who extracted all 

 the honey from his bees and then 

 feeds on sugar syrup is a heavy 

 loser in the end. 



In the Bee-Keepers' Review for 

 December is an article written by 

 Mr. Bartlette of Michigan. In that 

 article he speaks of feeders. I am 

 not real certain whether he recom- 

 mends two feeders for one hive, or 

 two hives for one feeder. I did not 

 think at the time it was two feed- 

 ers for one hive, for he says "If 



