100 DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 



helps build the body of the young bee. But when the bees are 

 full grown and confined to the hive, nothing is better for them 

 than the purest saccharine matter. So we have always made 

 it a point to remove all honeydew and late-gathered, dubious 

 sweets, harvested during a shortage of flowers in fall. 



If the bees are short, we add to their stores by supplying 

 them, in inverted can feeders, in the month of October, with 

 sugar syrup made of 2 parts of high grade cane sugar to 1 part 

 of water. If they do not take it too fast, they will assimilate it, 

 or in other terms invert it, by their saliva, just as they do with 

 pure nectar. If there is danger of the sugar not being sufficiently 

 inverted, it is a good plan to add to the food about one fifth 

 of its weight in good honey, with the quality of which we are ac- 

 quainted. This point is important, for it would not do to use 

 unknown honey that might bring them disease, such as foul- 

 brood. 



In our entire experience, we have had 5 or 6 winters when 

 the amount stored by the bees was insufficient to carry them 

 through. Whenever the amount of good sugar syrup given 

 ■the bees, in addition to their own stores, was sufficient, we 

 regularly found them to winter better than if they had used 

 only natural stores. So we are very much in favor of sugar feed- 

 ing whenever the colonies are short for winter. 



Whatever be the conditions, we aim to have our bees in 

 proper shape for winter long before the opening of cold weather. 

 Just as it was necessary to get them to breed plentifully until 

 the chilly days come, so it is necessary that they should quit 

 breeding when there are no more bees being lost from overwork 

 or accident. We want plenty of young bees for winter, but we 

 do not want them to have an amount of brood to care for, when 

 winter opens. At that time, the quieter they are, the better 

 it is for them and ourselves. 



Cellar Wintering 



We experimented largely on both cellar and outdoor winter- 

 ing. For 15 or 18 \'ears, \\ e wintered the bees at our home apiary 



