i66 Advanced Bee Culture. 



of the bees is this nitrogenous matter whicli the)' amsume, 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. With this as an exclusive 

 diet bees never die with the dysenterry ; and, if kept in a temperature 

 ranging from 35 to 42 degrees, they are all but certain ti) winter suc- 

 cessfully. This being the case, the question naturally follo\\.';, "Why not 

 take away the honey in the fall, and feed the bees sugar?" ( )ne objection 

 to the use of sugar as a winter food is that every pound of sugar so 

 used puts one more pound of hone}' on the market. Another objection 

 is that the bee-keeper is thereby compelled 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 

 cr\- of "adulteration." Perhaps 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 unquestionabl}' does put a little more honey on the market ; 

 but this ought not to weigh so very heavily against the certaint)- of 

 wintering the bees. Neither need there be any labor of extracting 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 hone_\' remains in the corners of the combs is 

 not likely to be consumed until spring, when frequent flights will pre- 

 vent all troubles that might arise from its consumption. Tn regard to 

 causing the public to believe that, liy 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 

 iiught to enjoy his neighbors confidence to that degree that the exact 

 truth can be told him, and it \vill be believed. As in regard to the 

 increased amount of honey that the use of sugar as winter stores puts 

 upon the market, so an}- possible talk about adulteration is over-balanced 

 1)\ the certaint)- of carr)ing the bees through the winter. 



If the feeding is done earl)- enough s(] that the bees will have time 

 to work the hone)- over and ripen it, no heat \\\]\ be needed in making 

 the s\'rup. v'-^imply slir into cold water all of the sugar that it will dis- 

 solve ; -feed it to the bees, and the)- \\-ill reduce it to the proper con- 

 sistenc)- ; and, by the addition of their sc-cretions, change the cane sugar 

 into grape sugar, thus practically making it into li(3ne\-. If fed too late, 

 something may be necessary to ]-)revent the granulation of the syrup. 



