1877. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



321 



making candy for the queen cages, except 

 that we are to work with larger (iiiantities. 



If your candy is burned, no amount of 

 boiling will make it hard, and your best 

 way is to use it for cooking, or feeding the 

 bees in summer weather. Burned sugar is 

 death to them, if fed in cold weather. You 

 can tell when it is burned, by the smell, color 

 and taste. If you do not boil it enough, it 

 will be soft and sticky in warm weather, and 

 will be liable to drip when stored away. 

 Perhaps you had better try a pound or two 

 at first, while you '' get your hand in." Our 

 first experiment was with 501bs. it all got 

 "scorched" "some how." 



As the most convenient way of feeding 

 candy that will probably be devised is to put 

 it into your regular brood frames, I shall 

 give directions for making it in that form. 

 If you do not like it so, you can break it out, 

 or cut it in smaller pieces with a knife, when 

 nearly cold. 



Lay your frame on a level table, or flat 

 board ; perhaps you had better use the flat 

 board, for you need some nails or wires driv- 

 en into it, to hold your frame down close, 

 that the candy may not run out under it. 

 Before you fasten the frame down, you will 

 need to put a sheet of thin paper on your 

 board, to prevent the candy sticking. Fix 

 the board exactly level, and you are all ready 

 to make your candy. If you have many 

 stocks that need feeding, you can get along 

 faster, by having several boards with frames 

 fastened on them. You will need some sort 

 of a sauce-pan, ( any kind of a tin pan with 

 a handle attached will do ) tliat will hold 

 about 10 lbs. of sugar. Put in a little water 

 — no vinegar, cream of tartar or any thing 

 of the sort is needed, whatever others may 

 tell you — and boil it until it is ready to sugar 

 off. You can determine when this point is 

 reached, by stirring some in a saucer, or you 

 can learn to test it as confectioners do, by 

 dipping your finger in a cup of cold water, 

 then in the kettle of candy and back into 

 the water again. When it breaks like egg 

 shells from the end of your finger, the candy 

 is just right. Take it off the stove at once, 

 and as soon as it begins to harden around 

 the sides, give it a good stirring, and keep it 

 up imtil it gets so thick that you can just 

 pour it. Pour it into your frame, and get 

 in just as much as you can without running 

 it over. If it is done nicely, the slabs should 

 look like marble when cold, and should be 

 almost as clean and dry to handle. If you 

 omit the stirring, your candy will be clear 

 like glass, but it will be sticky to handle and 



will be very apt to drip. The stirring causes 

 all the water to be taken up in the crystali- 

 zation or graining process, and will make 

 hard dry sugar, of what would have other- 

 wise been damp or waxy candy. If you 

 wish to see how nicely it works for feed- 

 ing bees, just hang out a slab and let the 

 bees try it. Tliey will carry it all away as 

 peaceably as they would so much meal in 

 the spring. 



You can feed bees with tliis any day in 

 the winter, by hanging a frame of it close 

 up to the cluster of bees. If you put it 

 into the hive in very cold weather, it would 

 be well to keep it in a warm room, until 

 well warmed through. Now remove one of 

 the outside combs containing no bees, if 

 you can find such a one, spread the cluster, 

 and hang the frame in the centre. Cover 

 the bees at the sides and above, with cush- 

 ions, and they will l)e all safe. If a colony 

 needs only a little food, you can let them 

 lick off what they like, and set the rest away 

 lantil another time, or until another season. 



WHAT KIND OF SUGAR TO USE FOR MA- 

 KING CANDY. 



AVe have generally used the coffee A, but 

 any of the sugars that are used for feeding 

 will answer, if we except the new grape or 

 corn sugar. The bees seem to be quite loth 

 to use this in any other form than syrup, 

 and we hardly know why. Common brown, 

 and maple sugars, work nicely, although it 

 is plain to be seen that the bees prefer the 

 better article ; for this reason, we have used 

 the latter. Coffee A sugar now costs us lie. 

 by the barrel, and retails for 12c. As we 

 have to pay a confectioner 2c. for making, 

 the candy cannot well be sold at retail for 

 less than loc. As much as i part of wheat 

 flour can be added to the sugar and it will be 

 nearly as white and hard, but the labor of 

 making is very much more, for it must be 

 boiled very slowly, and stirred to prevent 

 burning. The bees seem to prefer that con- 

 taining the flour, and it has the effect of 

 hastening brood-rearing, like pollen. After 

 it is stored in combs, it looks like honey 

 except for a slightly milky or turbid appear- 

 ance. It has a very perceptible flour taste. 

 It will, in all probability, be as good or bet- 

 ter for winter stores; we are at present— 

 Oct., 1877— taking measures to test it 

 thoroughly. If rye flour and grape sugar 

 could be combined so as to make a dry clean 

 candy or even cake that would be readily 

 taken by the bees, it seems as if it would be 

 the bee-keeper's desideratum, so far as 

 cheapness is concerned ; but altliough the 



