FEEDING AND EEEDEES. 



201 



FEEDING AND FEEDERS. 



entrance. For stimulative purposes this is 

 one of the best feeders sold. The only objec- 

 tion is that it is sometimes difficult, owing 

 to the unevenness of the ground, to adjust 

 the feeder to the back end of the hive in 

 such a way that it will fit up tight to the 

 hive, shutting out all robbers. 



DOOLITTLE DIVISION-BOAKD FEEDER. 



The illustration given below shows that 

 it is nothing more nor less than a large 

 brood- frame paneled on each side. Down 

 through the center runs a partition reaching 

 almost to the bottom. This feeder, from the 

 very nature of its construction, can be set 

 down in the brood-nest like an ordinary 

 division-board, or brood-frame, for that mat- 

 ter ; and as it is confined wholly within the 

 brood-nest, not even requiring an upper 

 story or super, it is the most convenient and 



most satisfactory of any thing we ever used 

 — fully as handy as the Boardman. All that 

 is necessary is to slide the cover about an 

 inch; then with a coffee-pot pour in the feed. 



Close the hive up and treat the next one 

 the same way. For stimulating weak colo- 

 nies or nuclei for the purpose of queen- 

 rearing, our people unhesitatingly pro- 

 nounce it by all odds the best feeder in the 

 whole list, and if a colony does not require 

 more than five or six pounds it is the best 

 winter feeder. 



There is still another feeder, and a very 

 excellent one, and that is the Miller. We 



THE MILLER FEEDER 



use it almost exclusively for feeding up col- 

 onies for winter. This has a large capacity, 

 and one can feed from 10 to 25 pounds at 

 one time. When for any reason feeding has 



been deferred till late, this feeder is the one 

 to use. The small feeders before described 

 are adapted to stimulative purposes, and 

 will hold only a couple of quarts at most; but 

 we use only the Miller feeder wlien we may 

 desire to feed a large amount of syrup at 

 once. 



The first cut shows the feeder adapted 

 to an eight-frame Langstrotluiiive, and its 

 capacity is 25 lbs. of syrup. The accompa- 

 nying cross-section shows that there are two 

 feed-reservoirs. On the principle that liq- 

 uids always seek their level, the syrup pass- 

 es under the raised partition B; and the 

 bees, to get access to the syrup, start from 

 the arrow E, and take the feed from the 

 inner chambers under tlie cover-board A. 

 With most feeders of the kind, bees are 

 obliged to pass through the two ends or the 

 outside, and sometimes, in cool weather, re- 

 fusing to leave the center of the brood-nest, 



they fail to take the syrup. The great fea- 

 ture of the Miller feeder is that the passage- 

 way to the feed is located directly over the 

 center of the brood-nest, and the warmth of 

 the cluster rising is confined in the passage- 

 ways and chambers under A. This feature, 

 coupled with the fact that it is made of 

 wood, renders it possible to feed bees during 

 quite cold freezing weather. 



FALL FEEDING: FULL DETAILS ON HOW TO 

 DO THE WORK RAPIDLY AND EASILY. 



If colonies are to be wintered on sugar 

 syrup mainly, the general practice is to feed 

 some time in September, and, as a rule, this 

 is, perhaps, the best time to feed. Still, in 

 many localities in central United States, 

 there is warm weather in October sufficient 

 to start brood-rearing, and much of the stores 

 fed in September may be consumed so that 

 what is left is not sufficient to last until the 

 new honey-flow. For this reason it is often 

 unsafe to feed in September and give no 

 further attention to the bees. There are 

 other cases when, for one reason or another, 

 feeding may be delayed until cold weather 

 begins; for instance, if one is running a 

 number of outyards it is impossible, without 

 hiring a large force of men, to feed all these 

 yards at once, and by the time the last yard 

 is reached it may be rather late. 



But before we begin the actual work of 

 feeding we make a preliminary canvass of 

 the whole apiary. This we do by " hefting" 



