ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 173 



to keep up the animal heat. The more food there is consumed, the 

 sooner are the intestines overloaded. A moment's reflection will 

 make it clear that the character of the food consumed has an effect 

 upon the accumulation in the intestines. In the digestion of cane 

 sugar there is scarcely any residue. Honey is usually quite free 

 from nitrogenous matter, being well supplied with oxygen, and, 

 when practically free from floating grains of pollen, is generally a 

 very good and safe winter-food; although not as good as properly 

 prepared sugar syrup, which never contains nitrogen, but possesses 

 more oxygen. The excreta from diarrhetic bees is almost wholly 

 pollen grains, in a digested or partly digested state, with a slight 

 mixture of organic matter. What overloads the intestines of the 

 bees is this nitrogenous matter which they consume, either as 

 grains of pollen floating in the honey, or by eating the bee bread 

 itself. 



Repeated experiments have proved beyond a doubt that, as a 

 winter food for bees, cane sugar has no superior. Wfth this as an 

 exclusive diet, bees never die with the dysentery; and, if kept in a 

 temperature ranging from,3S to 42 degrees, they are all but certain 

 to winter successfully. This being the case, the question naturally 

 follows, why not take away the honey in the fall, and feed the bees 

 sugar? One objection to the use of sugar, as a winter food, is that 

 every pound of sugar so used puts one more pound of honey on the 

 market. Another objection is that the bee-keeper is thereby com- 

 pelled to pay out money for sugar, while he may have on hand a crop 

 of honey that is meeting with slow sale. Some object to its use on 

 the ground that it lends color to the cry of "adulteration." Per- 

 haps the greatest objection is the labor of extracting the honey and 

 feeding the sugar. 



Let's consider these objections. The use of sugar as a winter 

 food for bees unquestionably does put a little more honey on the 

 market, but this ought not to weigh so very heavily against the cer- 

 tainty of wintering the bees. Neither need there be any labor of ex- 

 tracting the honey in the fall, if the summer management has been 

 conducted with a view to feeding sugar in the fall. By contraction 

 of the brood nest nearly all of the honey may be forced into the 

 supers, leaving the brood combs nearly empty at the end of the 

 season. It only remains to feed the bees, and, with proper feeders 

 (the Heddon, for instance), tin cans, and oil stoves for making the 

 syrup, feeding is neither a long nor a tedious task. What little 

 honey remains in the corners of the combs is not likely to be con- 

 sumed until spring, when frequent flights will prevent all troubles 

 that might arise from its consumption. In regard to causing the 



