76 



ADVANCEID BEH-CULTURE;. 



to ask why not take away the honey in 

 the fall and feed the bees sugar ? The 

 objections to the use of sugar as a winter 

 food for bees are that every pound of 

 sugar used puts one more pound of honey 

 on the market; the work of extracting 

 the honey and feeding the sugar is some- 

 thing; the bee-keeper often has a crop of 

 honey that is meeting with poor sale, 

 and he has not the money to invest in 

 sugar; while some object to its use on the 

 ground that it lends color to the cry of 

 "adulteration." 



The use of sugar as a winter food for 

 bees unquestionably puts 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 extracting 

 the honey in the fall, as by proper man- 

 agement, such as contraction of the brood 

 nest, the honey can nearly all be forced 

 into the supers, leaving the brood combs 

 nearly empty at the end of the season. 

 What little honey remains in the corners 

 will not be consumed until the next 

 spring, when frequent flights will pre- 

 vent all troubles that might arise from 

 its consumption. With proper feeders 

 (the Heddon, for instance), tin cans and 

 oil stoves for tnaking the syrup, feeding 

 is not a long nor laborious job. In re- 

 gard to causing people to believe that by 

 some hocus pocus the sugar that is fed 

 gets into the surplus, no one need know 

 of the feeding, except it might be, in 

 some cases, an immediate neighbor, and 

 the bee-keeper ought to enjoy his neigh- 

 bor's confidence to that degree that the 

 exact truth can be told him and be be- 

 lieved. As in regard to the increased 

 amount of honey that the use of sugar 

 as winter stores puts upon the market, so 

 the talk about adulteration is overbal- 

 anced by the certainty of carrying the 

 bees safely through the winter. The 

 greatest objection to the use of sugar for 

 winter stores is the advancing of money 

 to buy the sugar while the honey may be 

 unsold and of slow sale. The price of 

 augar is now so low that, unless the price 



of honey drops in proportion, there will 

 be some more inducement to use sugar 

 for winter stores. 



If sugar is to be fed, it ought to be giv- 

 en early, as the bees then have a chance 

 to handle it over, and, in this handling, 

 its character is somewhat changed by 

 the addition of the secretions from their 

 glands. There is also an opportunity of 

 sealing over the syrup, when it is less 

 likely to be inj ured by changes in tem- 

 perature, by moisture, etc. If the syrup 

 is fed late, it must be made thick, as the 

 bees have no time to evaporate it; and 

 there must be something added to pre- 

 vent the syrup from crystalizing. After 

 repeated trials, I give my preference to 

 honey. From ten to twenty per cent, of 

 honey is sufficient. September is early 

 enough to feed. When feeding /las been 

 neglected until it is so late and the 

 weather so cool that the bees will not 

 leave the cluster and go up into a feeder, 

 it may be managed by filling the feeder, 

 with hot syrup and placing it under the 

 hive. The heat from the syrup will warm 

 up and arouse the bees, when they 

 will come down and carry up the feed. 



But all cannot, or may not wish to, 

 use sugar for winter stores, and many do 

 not need to use sugar to insure success- 

 ful wintering of their bees. There is a 

 great difference in localities. Where one 

 has successfully pursued the same course 

 year after year, it is doubtful if a change 

 would be desirable; but what shall the 

 man do who loses heavily nearly every 

 winter, yet cannot, or will not, use sugar ? 

 Possibly he can so manage that his win- 

 ter stores will come from a different 

 source. O. O. Poppleton takes the 

 grouud that the best honey for winter 

 stores is that secured from the most 

 bountiful yields. There may something 

 in this, but I know of one locality where 

 the fall flow is always the most abundant, 

 and I might almost say always abundant, 

 yet so surely will it kill bees that the 

 most extensive bee-keeper in that local- 

 ity, after an experience of many years, 

 kills his bees in the fall rather than at- 



