The Relation of Food to the Wintering of Bees. 



■ N THE Southern States, and other 

 places not blessed with a stern win- 

 ter, where bees can enjoy frequent 

 ■'-^ flights, It matters little what the 

 food is, so long as it is not actually poi- 

 sonous. By this I mean, any kind of 

 sweet like sugar, honey, or even honey 

 dew, will answer as food. In these mild 

 climates little or no protection is needed, 

 but, as higher latitudes are reached, 

 chaff hives are needed and there mast be 

 some care exercised in regard to food. 

 As we journey still further from the 

 equator, it is only cellars and the best of 

 food that bring forth uniform results. 



It has been asserted that honey is the 

 "natural" food of bees, and that nothing 

 is to be gained by substituting cane sugar. 

 It must be remembered that the ' 'natural' ' 

 home of 1 he bee is that of a warm climate 

 where there are no long spells of confine- 

 ment caused by continued cold. Honey 

 is, of course, the "natural" food of bees, 

 but this fact does not prevent their dy- 

 ing sometimes as the result of its con- 

 sumption, when a diet of cane sugar 

 would have saved their lives. 



In my opinion, food is the pivotal 

 point upon which turns the wintering of 

 bees in our Northern States. Food is the 

 fulcrum, and temperature the long end 

 of the lever. 



The whole question in a nut shell is 

 just this: The loss of bees in winter, 

 aside from that caused by diarrhoea, is 

 not worth counting. It is diarrhoea that 

 kills our bees. What causes it ? An over- 



loading of the intestines with no opportu- 

 nity tor unloading them. Cold confines 

 the bees to their hives. The greater the 

 cold the larger are the quantities of food 

 consumed to keep up the animal heat. 

 The more food there is consumed, the 

 sooner are the intestines overloaded. 

 Doesn't it seem clear that the character 

 of the food consumed would have an 

 effect upon the amount of accumulation 

 in the intestines ? In the digestion of 

 cane sugar there is scarcely any residue. 

 Honey is generally quite free from nitrog- 

 enous matter, being well supplied with 

 oxygen, and when free from floating 

 grains of pollen is a very good and safe 

 winter food, although not as good as 

 properly prepared sugar syrflp, which 

 never contains nitrogen but does possess 

 more oxygen. The excreta from diarrhe- 

 tic 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 that they con- 

 sume either as grains of pollen floating 

 in the honey, or by eating the bee bread 

 itself. 



Repeated experiments have proved be- 

 j-ond the shadow of a doubt that, as a 

 winter food for bees, pure cane sugar has 

 no superior. With this as an exclusive 

 diet, bees never die with the dysentery; 

 and, if kept in a temperature ranging 

 from 35° to 45°, they are all but certain 

 to winter successfully. This being the 

 case, I do not wonder that some are ready 



