THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



379 



your bees are short of stores in the 

 spring, feed on sugar syrup. Never 

 under any conditions feed lioney." 

 I mention this article to show you 

 that our specialists in northern 

 Michigan are filling the brood nests 

 of their colonies in the fall with 

 sugar syrup and they go through 

 the same operation in the spring. 



Today, I have over 200 solid 

 combs of honey on hand for spring 

 feeding and at present time it does 

 not look as though I would need to 

 feed a pound this coming spring. For 

 years at extracting time I have left 

 one super of honey on the hives. 

 This super contains the lighter combs 

 cf honey and I try to have about 

 twenty pounds of honey to each 

 colony for winter stores. By doing 

 this way I seldom have to feed 

 sugar. When I have no honey to 

 feed, certainly I feed sugar syrup. 

 But beekeepers in northern Michi- 

 gan are feeding ten pounds of sugar 

 syrup where they should feed only 

 one 



Now give me your attention and 

 I will try and show you the effects 

 of taking away all the honey and 

 tlien feeding up on sugar in sy- 

 rup. Mr. Bartlette says he extracts 

 about August 1st. Let us go into 

 his yard a few days after extracting 

 and what do we find? We see col- 

 onies actually starving to death, 

 Yes? They are removing the brood 

 from the combs. Not only Mr. Bart- 

 lett's bees but every one of you, 

 that took all the honey away at 

 extracting time. The season of 1912 

 I am sure you were all caught. Now 

 I want to ask you Fellow Beekeep- 

 ers,after your colonies have brought 

 in from 100 to 800 pounds of the 

 nicest honey, are they not worthy 

 a few pounds of their natural stores 

 for their own use? Again, let us 

 see the effect it has on the price of 

 our product. To explain this I will 

 refer to my own bees as I am bet- 

 ter acquainted with them. In the 

 spring of 1912 I found one of my 

 cellars in an outyard had caved in, 

 probably, early in the fall and more 

 than one-half of the bees were dead 

 and the remainder were about 

 worthless so far as getting any 

 honey from them was concerned. 

 My other yards did well. 



Suppose I had taken 30,000 

 pounds from them that season 

 and that is very near what 

 I would have taken provided 



I had taken all the honey 

 from their upper stories. In a few 

 days my bees would have been in 

 a, starving condition and I should 

 have had to carry my bees till the 

 following season on sugar syrup. I 

 cannot tell how much it would take 

 to carry them through but I would 

 not want to risk them on less than 

 10,000 pounds, or about 25 pounds 

 per colony. If by feeding this sugar 

 syrup I would have been able to 

 have put in the neighborhood of 

 10,000 pounds more honey on the 

 market and that too, on a market 

 that is already over-stocked. 



In the fall of 1912 I sold the 

 larger part of my honey early in 

 the season at 9 cents a pound in 

 ton lots. Now by feeding sugar 

 syrup to my bees I could put 50 

 pounds more honey on the market 

 than I could by letting the bees 

 have 10,000 pounds of natural 

 stores. If all the beekeepers 

 in the U. S. are feeding their 

 colonies as much sugar syrup 

 as the beekeepers are here, it 

 will take eight figures to ex- 

 press the quantity of sugar fed to 

 the bees. 



If the price of honey is govern- 

 ed by the supply and demand and 

 the price falls in proportion to the 

 extra amount of honey we put on 

 the market by feeding sugar syrup 

 to our bees, I would not look for 

 9 cents a pound. I should expect 

 about 6 to 7 cents for an extracted 

 honey. 



In making these comparisons I 

 would say that in 1912 the honey 

 crop was hardly up to the average, 

 while in northern Michigan we had 

 a good crop of honey and received 

 a good price. About one year in 

 three our bees gather a little fall 

 honey. This honey is dark in 

 color and if put on the market the 

 price is low. For this reason bee- 

 keepers leave this honey in the 

 hives for winter stores. I often 

 think how the bees look forward 

 and appreciate such a season. 



Now I have come to the worst 

 phase of the whole business of 

 feeding sugar to our bees. Really 

 it hurts me to read before this con- 

 vention what I feel it is my duty 

 to do. But I think it is time that 

 the beekeepers of northern Michi- 

 gan should cooperate if we expect 

 to save our reputation as beekeep- 

 ers. You may look over all profes- 



