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126 



TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



I have fed as late as October. I have 

 shaken swarms into a 10-frame hive on 

 foundation, and fed them granulated 

 sugar. I have had the bees winter 

 better, and have fed them on 2 cent 

 sugar; we have a condenser in our 

 town, and I can get good sugar at 2 

 cents. I have had good success with 

 it. Mr. Alexander, I believe, claims to 

 make it 3 and 2; I never have it any 

 stronger than half and half. I fed it 

 to 5 colonies in October, and had half 

 ihe frames sealed over; I fed them half 

 and half, and they came through 

 splendidly. 



Mr. Wilcox — ^I feed every year, more 

 or less, for stimulative feeding in the 

 spring, and I mix in the proportion of 

 2 to 1—2 of water to 1 of sugar; boil 

 ir together, and then feed it in feed- 

 ers both at the entrance and on top, 

 and also the division-board. That 

 kind of feeding w^as not adapted to fall 

 feeding; you should make a distinction 

 there; it is too thick for the fall of the 

 year, and just right for spring. 



Mr. Ahlers — I doubt if Mr. Wilcox's 

 bees were stimulated, but merely kept 

 alive. If you want to stimulate I think 

 the bees should have honey; they 

 ■would have reared more bees if they 

 had honey; if they had had no sugar 

 they would naturally have died, but 

 it didn't stimulate them. 



Mr. Wilcox — Then you think honey 

 is more stimulative than sugar? 



Mr. Ahlers — I do. It seems to ex- 

 cite them; they go at sugar in a 

 general way, but with honey they seem 

 to get excited. 



Mr. Holbrook — ^I saw an article in a 

 bee-paper, recently, to the effect that 

 sugar syrup weakens the longevity of 

 bees — and that appealed to me. If you 

 feed sugar syrup in the spring, is there 

 not danger of having them carry it 

 up in the combs? Can you say with 

 absolute certainty that your honey is 

 absolutely pure, when you feed that 

 sugar syrup in the spring for stimu- 

 lative feeding? I believe in stimula- 

 tive feeding, and I know the result 

 is most satisfactory, but I believe in 

 feeding honey. 



Mr. iSmith — That is a point I would 

 like very much to get scientific evi- 

 dence on. I am a little inclined to 

 think if we feed sugar for stimAilative 

 feeding that we do not produce pure 

 honey. I am inclined to think that you 

 cannot get as good a grade of honey. 



How many of us know whether we 

 get as good a grade of honey produced ; 

 from one flower as from another — • 

 from one blossom as another? 



I don't know whether it would be a ' 

 good thing to excite the bees or not. ' 

 The honey may excite them, but that I 

 don't necessarily produce more bees. 

 That is a point I would like to have ' 

 determined. 



If we are going into the suJbject of • 

 bee-culture to succeed, we ought to 

 know a great many of these things, 

 and that is where this Association 

 might accomplish considerable — if we 

 could determine whether the bee is as ' 

 long lived when fed on sugar as on 

 ihoney, and whether it can do as much 

 or more work. We don't know what 

 the best tfeed for our bees is. We 

 know when it comes to animals — be- 

 cause that has been tested scientifi- 

 cally, but we don't know when it 

 comes to producing honey. ^ 



Mr. Whitney — We all know that 

 honey is quite different when the bees 

 are fed on sugar syrup; there is more 

 or less pollen in honey, but there is 

 none of it in sugar syrup; pollen is 

 one of the principal foods of the 

 young bee. I would think, for stimu- 

 lative feeding, honey would be pref- 

 erable to sugar syrup. If you have ' 

 not the honey, why, do the best you 

 can. ^ 



Mi*. Taylor — Bees need the pure honey; 

 they need the pollen; the bee can live 

 on pure sugar just as well as they can 

 on honey, and they will live better in 

 winter on the pure sugar syrup be- 

 cause they are not active; they don't 

 need the bee-'bread, as we used to call 

 it, but you can't rear a young bee oh 

 pure syrup; they ihave to have bee- 

 bread. 



If you want to winter bees safely, 

 take the combs without any pollen in . 

 thenj- or foundation, and feed them .. 

 the pure sugar ^rup, and your bees 

 will winter flrst-class. There is 

 nothing to excite them or give them 

 any disease, but you can't rear any 

 young 'bees from that, and they don't 

 need any honey in the winter, but in 

 the spring, if you want brood, you 

 must have combs -with pollen in them, 

 or you must give them something that 

 answers for pollen in some shape, anc^ 

 then your sugar syrup is just as good 

 as honey. 



Mr. Cavanagh — The point iij regard 



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