Hi all,                                                                         
                                                                                
Last week I bought, second hand, "Background to beekeeping", written by Allen   
C. Waine, 1955, London, 118 pages and 16 pages with nice illustrations from     
David Hutter. It is a very clear textbook on beekeeping for the beginner.       
Two citations:                                                                  
1." Various additions to the sugar syrup have been suggested from time to       
time but only thymol gives any definite advantage. Thymol is an antiseptic      
and has the power of preserving  sugar solution against mould and               
fermentation indefinitely; if bees are slow in taking their food ( as they      
are in cold weather) syrup containing thymol will not spoil. Thymol is not      
strange or distasteful to bees since it occurs naturally in nectar from         
plants of the mint family. The recommended quantity of thymol is two-fifths     
of a grain per pound of sugar used. A convenient way of measuring this is to    
get from a chemist a 2% solution of thymol in surgical spirit and to add one    
teaspoonful of this to every pint of syrup".                                    
2 " Some beekeepers also feed their bees in the spring with the idea of         
simulating an early nectar flow and encouraging the bees to begin breeding      
earlier than they would normally. It is very doubtful if this practice has      
any advantages provided that the bees have adequate stores within the hive".    
                                                                                
ad 1: Many other beekeeping books, written in the first half of this century,   
mentioned the use of thymol in sugar syrup. for example: Schotman (after        
E.B.Wedmore's Manual); De Roever; Ed Alphandery etc.                            
For some reason it went out of use.                                             
                                                                                
ad 2: Just what we always learned in the Netherlands and it is beekeeper's      
false economy to economize on sugar in the fall.                                
                                                                                
francois                                                                        
                                                                                
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