ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



157 



whatever your spring flow is to get 

 them going in the spring. 



It may seem pretty expensive to buy 

 sugar at war-time prices and feed it, 

 but 1 think it always pays to put a 

 colony in winter quarters with a great 

 many stores because it has been evi- 

 dent to me that colonies in the spring, 

 with an abundance of honey, do more 

 towards building up than colonies that 

 require stimulative feeding. 



It seems to me it does not make any 

 difference how much sugar you shoot 

 into a colony in the spring, it does not 

 do as much good as if they had their 

 own honey to use. 



Some advocate changing the combs 

 around inside the hive. 



I have found that best in my locality. 

 We do not have a honey flow until 

 about the middle of June anyway, 

 sometimes the last of May. For the 

 last four years now the flow from fruit 

 bloom — it has been entirely frozen. 



I found in a number of colonies this 

 spring there was a very small amount 

 of brood in because of no honey flow. 

 It only required three or four pints of 

 thin syrup to pack that hive full of 

 brood almost more than they could 

 cover, and I have no doubt if I had not 

 fed that thin syrup the queen would 

 have gone along probably quite a time 

 before she would have anywhere near 

 like more brood than she could cover. 



I can heartily endorse the action of 

 the Chicago -Northwestern last year 

 in endorsing Mr. Thale's feeder. You 

 can always see your feed; and this 

 feeder works with the least trouble to 

 the bee-keeper; you can tell when it 

 is empty by being always able to see 

 your feed, and with almost no dis- 

 turbance you can flU the feeder up 

 again.. 



I think it is much better to feed 

 from the bottom of a colony than from 

 the top because it seems to me that 

 opening the hive on cool days in the 

 spring from the top, even for a short 

 time, to lift out the feeder and put in 

 another, lets a large amount of heat 

 out of there and that must be detri- 

 mental to the colony and the queen. 



For feeding in the fall where any 

 amount is fed, I think the Thale 

 feeder is hardly the thing; you cannot 

 feed enough at a time. I should then 

 prefer the Miller. One of the members 

 said they used a friction top can; 

 punched holes in and set it over the 



frame. It seems to me in the fall the 

 quicker you can get the syrup into the 

 hive after the time you start to feed, 

 the better it is for the bees and all 

 concerned. Your labor is over more 

 quickly. 



The Division Board feeder I do not 

 like. I do not believe very many peo- 

 ple like it very well. It either feeds 

 too fast or too slow; that is my ex- 

 perience. 



This last fall when I had to feed a 

 number of colonies to get them into 

 winter shape, I had the worst time to 

 get the bees to take honey out of the 

 Division Board feeder; I tried mixing 

 it thin, mixing it tliick, and mixing it 

 medium, and I came nearly to a point 

 of putting a little strong drink in the 

 feed. 



I had to go back to the Thale feeder 

 or use the Miller feeder. 



I do not think it best to use any- 

 thing besides sugar syrup for stimu- 

 lative purposes. 



One might buy honey and thin it 

 down, but I think in these days of 

 American foul brood one runs too 

 much of a risk in getting honey from 

 diseased sources. 



course it is possible to dilute this 

 and boil it, but it has been my ex- 

 pei-ience that the bees do not take it 

 so readily. 



It seems to change the taste; I know 

 it changes the color; and sugar syrup 

 is the best all round. 



Of course when breeding queens 

 there is no doubt that stimulative 

 feeding is necessary almost any time 

 unless there is a big honey flow on. 



1 think you will find if you raise your 

 own queens you will get 75 per cent 

 more cells accepted if you feed them 

 an am.ount of thin syrup than if you 

 do not use any, and looking at it from 

 a queen breeder's point of view, which 

 is about the only point of view I have, 

 I like the feeder best. 



In raising queens : I cut a small 

 hole in the bottom of my super box 

 and inserted a Miller feeder; I fixed a 

 block on the inside of the box so that 

 the feed could be reflated as it is on 

 the hive without the bee escape, and 

 I found that worked much better than 

 to put the two combs of honey in 

 swarm box or division feeder in the 

 swarm box. 



I do not know that there is much 

 more that I can say about Stimulative 



