FEEDING. 163 



never could discover any thing further, than it was a 

 perfect waste, while in this state. When boiled, and 

 a little water added, it appears to be just as good as 

 any. Nearly every stock will have more or less of 

 it on hand at this season ; but as warm weather ap- 

 proaches, and the bees increase to warm the hive, it 

 seems to get liquified, from this cause alone. The 

 bees, when compelled to use honey from these cells, 

 thus candied, waste a large portion ; a part is liquid, 

 and the"' rest is grained like sugtwr, which may be seen 

 on the bottom-board, as the bees work it out very often. 

 Another object in feeding bees, is to give inferior 

 honey, mixed with sugar and flavored to suit the taste, 

 to the bees, and let them store it in boxes for market. 

 Now, I have no faith in honey undergoing any chem- 

 ical change in the stomach of the bee,* and cannot 



* Mr. Gillmau's patent for feeding bees, is based on the principle of 

 a chemioal change. It is said that the food he gives to the bees, when 

 poured into the cells, becomes honey of the first quality. This ap- 

 pears extremely mysterious ; for it is well understood that when a bee 

 has filled its sack it will go to the hive, deposit its load, and return 

 immediately for more, and will continue its labor throughout the day, 

 or until the supply fails ; each load occupying but few minutes. The 

 time in going from the feeder to the hive is so short that a change so 

 important is not at all probable. , The nature of bees seems to be to 

 collect honey, not make it ; hence we find, when bees are gathering 

 from clover, they store quite a different article than when from buck- 

 wlieat, — or when we feed West India honey, in quantities sufficient to 

 have it stored pure in the boxes, we find that it has lost none of its 

 bad taste in passing through the sacks of our northern bees. 



It appears most probable that, if Southern honey and cheap sugar 

 form the basis of his food, (which it is said to,) that it is flavored with 

 Bomething to disguise Oie disagreeable qualities of the compound. 

 Should this be tne secret, it would seem like a waste to feed it to bees— 



