THE BEE-KEEPERS REVIEW 



27 



ordered was dela3'ed, and then mis- 

 sent, andwas about a month behind in 

 reaching- us, so we were feeding" bees 

 more or less from the last of Septem- 

 ber until the fore part of November. I 

 presume we fed 100 colonies when it 

 was too cool for bees to fly; and there 

 was none of this demonstration men- 

 tioned by Bro. Root. I can't help 

 wondering^ if he was simply theorizing" 

 when he wrote the above item, or 

 whether he had actually fed bees when 

 it was too cool for them to fly with 

 safety, and met the kind of a disaster 

 he mentions. If the latter, why the dif- 

 ference in his experience and mine ? 



While we are on this subject of feed- 

 ing in cold weather, let me make an- 

 other quotation from Gleanings, from 

 a most excellent article by C. A. Hatch 

 of Wisconsin, on the building" of 

 cellars, and the cellar-wintering of 

 bees. In speaking of feeding bees in 

 winter he says : — 



This should never be done except as 

 a necessit3', and then only with combs 

 of honey or cakes of candy hard enough 

 so it will not run. Liquid feed should 

 never be used, as it gets too cold, and 

 chills the bees to death to fill up on it. 

 In feeding frames of honey the}' should 

 be put as close to the cluster as pos- 

 sible, and candy should be either 

 molded into a frame so as to hang next 

 to the cluster or be laid just over it 

 under the quilt. 



Before commenting upon this quota- 

 tion, let me give another clipping on 

 subject. This time it is from the pen 

 of E. A. INIorgan, of Wisconsin, and 

 published in the Farmer, of Minneap- 

 olis, Minn. In giving instruction for 

 the safe wintering of bees, Mr. 

 Morgan, among other things, said : — 



If some hives are found to be extra 

 light when carrying them in, set these 

 b}' themselves and feed them either 

 sugar syrup or honey. Dj not let any 

 colony starve for fear of disturbing 

 them by feeding. Many claim nothing 

 can be fed in the cellar but sealed comb 

 honey. This is a mistake. Liquid 

 food can be given in the cellar with 

 perfect safety; make it of two parts by 



measure of granulated sugar to one- 

 third water. Melt and let come to a 

 boil, cool to blood heat and feed with 

 a suction feeder above the frames. I 

 have taken colonies to winter that had 

 nothing but the bare combs, put them 

 in the cellar and fed them in this way 

 and wintered them and could see no 

 diff'erence between them and those 

 wintered on sealed honey. In the 

 winter of 1883 I wintered "forty-three 

 colonies on sugar syrup aloue, costing 

 $1.00 per colony. I gave them ten 

 feeds during the winter, placing a 

 quart of liquid food on each once in 

 fifteen days and succeeded with every 

 one. 



Since then I have wintered an occa- 

 sional few the same way successfully. 

 Still, experienced bee men will tell you 

 it can't be done, simply because they 

 never tried it. I have wintered colo- 

 nies on sugar candy by laying it at the 

 entrance and never opened the hive 

 during the winter. 



A year or two ago, I visited Walter 

 Harmer, a veteran bee-keeper of Man- 

 istee, Michigan, and found him feed- 

 ing his bees sugar syrup in the cellar. 

 They were scant of stores in the fall, 

 and he did not have the money then to 

 buy the syrup to feed them. When he 

 began realizing on his crop of honej-, 

 he began feeding the bees; and it was 

 none too soon. It was nearly spring 

 when I was there, and he had been 

 feeding them nearly all winter, using 

 feeders of the pepper box style. His 

 bees came through the winter in per- 

 fect condition. 



I can't help wondering if Mr. Morgan 

 is not correct when he says that "ex- 

 perienced men say it can't be done, 

 simply because the}' have never tried 

 it." Is it one of those fables that are 

 handed down from generation to gen- 

 eration ? 



I think it is much better, in that it is 

 less trouble, to feed the bees in the fall, 

 but there is no excuse for letting them 

 starve in winter for fear that feeding 

 syrup will give them the "chills," pro- 

 vided they are irf a warm cellar. 

 Candy may be just as good, but here 

 are two men who have tried syrup and 

 found it all right. 



