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e (5)ee- 



eepeps 



' jAeViet 



lONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tlqe Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$1.00 A YEAR. 



W, Z. HUTCHINSON, Edllor and Proprietor. 



VOL IX. FLINT. MICHIGAN, NOV. 10, 1895. NO 



AV^ork at IVCicliigan's 



Experimental 



^piarv. 



K. L. TAYLOR, APIABIST. 

 FEEDING BACK. 



T T li H s been 

 1 thought worth 

 while to repeat 

 the experinieut 

 in feeding back 

 exfraoted honey 

 for the comple- 

 tion of unfiniph- 

 od section?. Tt 

 has also been 

 found more con- 

 venient and de- 

 sirable to do FO 

 owing to the fact that the character of the 

 season has been such that the percentage of 

 partially filled sections has been greater 

 during the past season ( IHiKl ) than ever be- 

 fore. This was owing to the shortness of 

 tho honey season and the slender character 

 of the honey flow. The extent of this was 

 such that but now and then a colony com- 

 pleted even one case. For the purposes of 

 the experiment four colonies were selected. 

 All were hybrid bees, so-called, and very 

 strong. For a brood chamber, each col- 

 ony was given a single section of the Hed- 



don hive containing frames equal to live 

 L ingstroth frames. Doubtless a brood 

 chamber even smaller, perhaps as small as 

 two and a half L. frames, would have been 

 better, and this for two reasons. First, 

 much less of the honey would have been re- 

 quired for the rearing of brood, as the ex- 

 tent of that would hav(3 been reduced by one 

 half. I have heretofore given reasons tend- 

 ing to show that it requires two pounds of 

 honey for the production of one pound of 

 brood and that a section of the Heddon hive, 

 if almost entirely devoted to brood, would 

 contain about ten pounds of it. If this la 

 substantially correct, it will be seen by 

 consulting the table presented herewith that 

 twenty pounds of honey would be required 

 every three weeks to produce the brood of 

 each of the colonies used in this experiment. 

 This amount of brood might have been re- 

 duced by one half without detriment to the 

 well-being of the colony, and one half the 

 honey saved. Second, what I have just said 

 appropriately introduces this point. The 

 number of bees continually hatching from 

 live L. frames full of brood constantly in- 

 creases the strength of the colony so that if 

 feeding is continued any length of time, 

 with the crowding necessary for the pro- 

 duction of comb honey, swarming is in- 

 duced. This would be detrimental to the 

 highest success of tho work. With about 

 half that amount of brood the strength of 

 the colony would be kept good and swarm- 

 ing avoided, for it must not be too readily 

 accepted that a small brood chamber with- 



