PART VI 
Wintering 
LATE FALL FEEDING. 
ITS ADVANTAGES; HOW 200 COLONIES WERE FED A SUFFICIENT AMOUNT OF 
WARM SYRUP TO LAST TIIEM THROUGH THE WINTER; WHY 
SUGAR SYRUP SHOULD BE SUBSTITUTED 
FOR HONEY. 
It is only a few years since the necessity of feeding bees in the fall 
was looked upon as the result of inexcusable negligence in the manage- 
ment. But time and experience are changing many methods, and we are 
fast learning that bee-keeping to-day is a very different business from 
that of years ago. 
While visiting one of the most extensive honey-producers of New 
York, he told me that he and his father had for several years fed every 
one of the 1500 or 2000 colonies they had, just before putting them 
away for winter. They gave each one about 20 lbs. of sugar syrup with- 
out regard to the amount of honey the hives contained. This syrup 
was made from granulated sugar in the proportion of 2 lbs. of sugar to 
1 of water. This was boiled until well dissolved, when about % lb. of 
tartaric acid was added to every 100 lbs. of sugar. From their exten- 
sive experience in feeding tons of sugar to thousands of colonies they 
told me it was a much safer and a better winter food than any honey 
their bees had ever gathered. 
The principal fault with all honey that I am acquainted with, except 
basswood, is that it contains some pollen that is carried into the honey- 
cups of the flowers by the wind or by insects, and then it is taken out 
with the nectar and becomes mixed with the honey, where it has a very 
injurious effect on the bees during the winter. This pollen is very no- 
ticeable in our large honey-tanks when they are nearly full of extracted 
honey, as it rises to the top, forming a scum sometimes two inches thick. 
This, when mixed with the winter stores, is quite likely to cause dysen- 
tery before the bees are taken from their winter quarters in the spring. 
Now, with sugar syrup, since there is no foreign substance it is 
practically all digested, and the bees come from their winter quarters 
dry and clean, leaving no marks on the snow or their hives after their 
long confinement. This one advantage derived from sugar syrup, of it- 
self alone, would far more than pay for the trouble of late fall feeding. 
But there is another advantage gained by substituting sugar syrup 
in the place of honey. If it requires about 20 lbs. of honey to winter a 
colony, this additional surplus would be worth at wholesale about $1.50. 
Now, in its place, if we used 14 lbs. of sugar to make 21 lbs. of very thick 
