THE "BEE-KEEPERS' lifiJVIEW. 



The experiment referred to was made for 

 several purposes ; one of wliich was to show 

 the results that may be expected to follow a 

 disregard of some of the principles stated in 

 the fore-going. Not having a supply of 

 honey for the purpose I used granulated 

 sugar which was made into a syrup by boil- 

 ing a certain amount of water and adding 

 an equal quantity of sugar by weight. In 

 the process of preparation there was an 

 evaporation such that the weight pat in was 

 14. Gf) per cent greater on the average than 

 that taken off. 



The feeding was begun the 10th of August 

 last and required four and a half weeks for 

 its completion. The three colonies employ- 

 ed were dark hybrids of more than the av- 

 erage strength of the apiary. Each colony 

 had a brood chamber consisting of a two- 

 section Heddon hive with a fair amount of 

 brood for that season in a year of great 

 dearth of bee pasturage. The sections to be 

 filled were all furnished with foundation 

 only and one case was given to one of the 

 colonies and two to each of the others. The 

 feed was supplied to the bees in pans placed 

 above the sections and was given as rapidly 

 as it could be taken. The greatest care was 

 taken in keeping a record of the amount fed, 

 the amount given each time being weighed 

 separately. During the greater part of the 

 time when feeding was going on there was 

 a moderate amount of honey being gather- 

 ed, sufficient however to supply most of 

 the apiary with abuiidant winter stores not- 

 withstanding previously the danger that 

 most of the colonies would have to be fed 

 for winter seemed imminent, and many 

 stored a considerable surplus in empty 

 combs. It cannot of course be determined 

 how much honey the colonies under consid- 

 eration gathered. Probably not nearly so 

 much so as they would have done had they 

 not been receiving feed, and judging from 

 the results, one of the three gathered much 

 less than either of the others. If this was so, 

 it resulted from the ditterence in the char- 

 acteristics of the bees of the different col- 

 onies. All three certainly brought in large 

 quanities of pollen. 



It will be noticed that in the table the 

 weight of each brood chamber before and 

 after the feeding is given and to that is add- 

 ed the weight of each at the time of putting 

 them into winter quarters. In the next col- 

 umn appears the weight of the liquid food 

 given each and that is followed by figures 



f showing the amount of dry sugar that went 

 to make up the syrup, then after the weight 

 *> of the honey produced and the gain in the 

 weight of the brood chamber, comes, last of 

 all, the amount of sugar which has disap- 

 peared entirely, and this upon the assump- 

 tion which is a somewhat violent one that 

 one pound of dry sugar made but one pound 

 of ripened syrup. But if we assume that a 

 pound of sugar made one and one-fourth 

 pjunds of sugar honey, the figures showing 

 the amounts consumed would be greatly 

 changed, and, disregarding fractions, we 

 find No. 1 consumed 84 lbs.. No. 2, :51 lbs., 

 and No. 3, 38 lbs. 



The question, what has become of these 

 large amounts is a puzzling one, but our 

 ability to answer it at least sufficiently to en- 

 able us in practice to greatly reduce them 

 is the point upon which the answer to the 

 question, can feeding back be made profit- 

 able, must turn. As bees have never been 

 suspected of casting good syrup out of the 

 hive we may assume that it was all used 

 legitimately in carrying on the work of the 

 hive but for different purposes as it answers 

 for food, fuel and building material. It 

 would be rash for one to undertake to say 

 for which of these surposes the greatest 

 amount was used, but probably if the facts 

 could begot at it would be that for food if 

 we include under that head all that is used 

 for the nourishment of the brood as well as 

 that portion of the honey consumed by the 

 mature bees, and needed to make, with the 

 pollen consumed^ a balanced ration. This 

 disposition of the matter would leave the 

 honey or syrup consumed by the bees more 

 than that to be divided and ascribed to the 

 other two purposes that of creating heat aud 

 that of producing wax. 



The only point that remains to be noticed 

 in this matter is the method by which the 

 expenditure of material for any of the pur 

 posed above defined may be curtailed. 



The expenditure for food pure and simple 

 could not be judiciously decreased to any 

 great extent. That of the mature bees could 

 not be decreased at all (if the work were 

 done at that season for the same length of 

 time) and that of the brood only to the ex- 

 tent the brood itself might be safely decreas- 

 ed. As bees at the season mentioned are 

 seldom inclined to rear much more brood 

 than is necessary to bring the colony through 

 in good condition to the next spring, not 

 very much could have been saved here 



