128 



TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



of our competitors who are putting 

 glucose in their sugar. We talk about 

 buying that material from our compet- 

 itors and feeding it to the bees, and 

 tOien we come in here and publish the 

 matter. I don't think that there is any 

 need of this talk about stimulative 

 feeding. 



The thing to do is, when you get a 

 good crop of honey — to keep enough 

 back for feeding. Don't go and sell all 

 your honey, and then buy something of 

 your competitor to feed back to the 

 bees, for some of it will go into the su- 

 pers. GIVE YOUR BEES HONEY! 



A Mr. So and So, out in the country, 

 used to buy sugar by the barrel, and 

 feed it to his bees, and sold the honey 

 to everybody around there for pure 

 honey, when it was sugar honey! If 

 that man had taken care of his busi- 

 nes, and saved some of his honey in- 

 stead of shipping it all off, selling it for 

 4 or 5 or 6 cents a pound, and then six 

 months afterwards bought sugar to 

 take the place of honey to feed his bees, 

 he would save the. reputation of bee- 

 keepers and of his honey. I don't think 

 any man deliberately used sugar to 

 make honey, but I do think it is bad 

 policy to come to a convention and 

 talk feeding bees sugar. 



What is the sense of it? Stimula- 

 tive feeding! The bee-papsrs are full 

 of it, sometimes. Some editors may 

 send out a question wanting to know 

 ■what everybody does about stimulative 

 feeding, and they will all tell how they 

 feed, and the public gets hold of it, and 

 gets not very good impressions. If we 

 are going to buy glucose, buy it from 

 the man who says it is glucose. 



The longer I 'keep bees, the less I 

 want to touch sugar syrup, or any 

 other kind. I feed my bees honey. I 

 don't think that anybody ought to say 

 at a convention that if you feed sugar 

 to your bees and they store it in the 

 combs, that it is honey; I don't think 

 that thing' ought to be said; I don't 

 believe it is so. The instant the chem- 

 ist finds this he will so state. 



Mr. Smith — I can't let that talk go. 



I believe bee-keepers, as well as 

 everybody else, are entitled to know 

 the truth. I believe in stating the 

 truth; I don't care if it ruins our bus- 

 iness. 



If I can feed my bees 2-cent sugar 

 and carry them through, and get them 

 to put more honey up, I have as much 



right to do that as a man has to feed 

 his cow hay and bring her up until clo- 

 ver comes, until she can furnish milk. 

 I don't know as much about honey as 



1 do about sugar, I have run a sugar 

 mill; we have made hundreds of thou- 

 sands of pounds of sugar, and if you 

 get 2 per cent glucose into the juice, 

 you, cannot make sugar out of it. Cane 

 sugar is said to be largely glucose; if 



2 per cent of that juice is glucose we 

 cannot get It to granulate. There is no 

 glucose in sugar. 



We want to get at the truth in this 

 discussion about stimulative feeding. 

 This is worth more to me than all the 

 other discussions we have had, per- 

 sonally. What Mr. Taylor said is 

 worth $100.00 to me. 



To Dr. Taylor: "I am not going to 

 give it to you." But we must cheapen 

 the production of honey if it is pos- 

 sible to do that, and make as much 

 money as we are making now; we 

 want to at the same time make more 

 money for ourselves; cheapen the 

 price of ihoney if we can make just as 

 much money for ourselves. 



There have been lots of remarks 

 made here, and there have been some 

 remarks made that can be construed 

 to our detriment if people want so to 

 construe them. No honest person 

 would lallow sugar to go into his 

 honey and sell it as pure honey, but 

 there may be people that would rather 

 have a certain kind of honey with 

 sugar in — sugar' mixed with it. What 

 we want to do is to get at the truth 

 of the matter. I would like to know 

 if the bees can take that thin syrup 

 and convert it into honey — what is 

 caled grape-sugar — if they can do 

 that, I would just as soon eat it, if it 

 tastes the same. 



Mr. Wilcox — Prof. Cook says they 

 can.. 



Mr. Huffman — I think Mr. Smith 

 has struck the key-note; if we can 

 find cheap feed for our hees and get 

 honey, and sell it for 14 cents a pound, 

 we have a bonanza. If you can find 

 a pound of sugar syrup in my honey 

 — ^and I have fed lots of syrup — ^I will 

 give you that honey, gratis. I never 

 feed it so that I know they are carry- 

 ing it into the sections or combs, but 

 feed enough to stimulate the bees. 

 What are you going to do with the 

 weakling that has not enough to keep 

 it alive? You have to 'build up and 





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