September, 1913. 



American Hee Journal 



so, and the disease has not reappeared 

 in that hive. I went over the same 

 yard again yesterday, and found only 

 two hives with foul brood, whicli, I 

 think, a pretty good showing consider- 

 ing there has been considerable dis- 

 ease in other yards in the neighbor- 

 hood within a year. 



My idea is that the inspector should 

 make it as easy for those having the 

 disease as possible. The more obsta- 

 cles we place in the way, the more 

 difficult to get the average bee-keeper 

 to do anything. Suppose the disease 

 reappears in two or three colonies for 

 lack of burning out their hives. It is 

 far easier to treat these again than to 

 burn out all the hives. 



Perhaps 1 am making more fuss over 

 the burning out of brood-chambers 

 than might seem necessary, but where 

 bees are kept in large double-walled 

 hives, and packed loosely with planer 

 shavings, it is more of a task to remove 

 the brood-chamber, get the bees out, 

 and burn out and repack than the rest 

 of the work. I have gotten rid of dis- 

 ease several times during the past 50 

 years without burning out a single 

 brood-chamber. But some one will 

 ask, "If you got rid of it, how did yOu 

 come to have it so many times ?" 

 How? By buying bees or honey, or 

 combs that contained the germs of 

 disease. 



Middlebury, Vt. 



Contributed 



Articles^ 



A New Feeder 



BV A. F. BONNEY. 



THE time was when if I got a bright 

 idea I wanted to rush off and 

 patent it, but after a few soul- 

 harrowing experiences the fever 

 abated, and I am now in not so 

 much hurry to look for a fortune in an 

 invention, particularly of an article of 

 use to bee-men, so I give this new one 

 to them. 



I have never yet found a feeder en- 

 tirely satisfactory to me. Cans of 

 syrup inverted over the frames will 

 warm up, the air will e.xpand and force 

 the syrup out over the bees; wooden 

 feeders of all kinds will leak and flood 

 the hives, wetting up the bees and 

 starting robbing ; entrance feeders are 

 baits for robber bees, while the use of 

 candy is troublesome, so much so that 

 I have yet to meet a bee-man who has 

 used it. 



The writer formerly kept chickens, 

 and used a waterer that he thought 

 perfect, and it is still in use by thou- 

 sands. It is based on the well-known 

 law that a small column of water will 

 balance a large one, and is made by 

 making a cup of part of the cover of a 

 friction-top pail, or fastening a cup on- 

 to any kind of a can with an opening 

 from the can into the cup. The vessel 

 is stood up and filled, then laid on its 

 side when the syrup will run into the 

 cup until it closes the opening in the 

 can, when the flow ceases until air is 

 let into the can by the bees taking up 

 the syrup from the cup. 



To adapt this to a bet -feeder, bore a 

 hole in the cover of a friction-top pail 

 or can. This must be 's inch in 

 diameter. To the rim of the cover 

 solder a piece of tin 3 inches long and 

 % inches wide, cut to fit the curve of 

 the cover's rim. This will make a cup 

 about >'s inches deep, 3-10 inches from 

 front to back, and it will hold approxi- 



mately two-tenths of an ounce of syrup. 



As every one has several friction-top 



pails, quarts and gallons, such feeders, 



The Friction-Top Can Made into a 

 Feeder. 



in small numbers, may be made very 

 cheaply, while if new cans must be 

 used they need not cost more than 10 

 cents each. As they lie on the side 

 while in use, they may be covered with 

 packing, the cup coming right over a 

 hole in the super cover and protected 

 with a piece of burlap. 



It is needless to tell that such a 

 feeder may be arranged for stimulative 

 feeding, or by increasing the size of the 

 hole to give a colony a very large 

 quantity of syrup in a short time. The 

 application of the principal to the bee- 

 feeder is what I claim to have dis- 

 covered. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



Feeding Bees 



BY E. S. MILES. 



^N page 114 for April, Mr. H. A. 

 Wells criticises my advice, that 

 " when you have fed your colony 

 what you are quite sure is plenty, 

 then feed it about 5 or 10 pounds 

 more." I wish to call Mr. Wells' atten- 

 tion to the fact that I was discussing 

 the feeding of colonies that were out, 

 or nearly out, of stores, and not as his 

 were, "Already had enough to have 

 carried them through." 



The difference is here: In feeding 

 this sugar syrup to colonies destitute 

 of stores, there is a large shrinkage be- 

 tween what the syrup weighs and what 

 is left after the bees finish handling it 

 and have it stored in their combs. This 

 is why it is better to give 5 to 10 pounds 

 mo?e rather than just enough ; for, in 

 fact, it is impossible to tell just what is 

 enough exactly for each colony. This 

 shrinkage is variable, and the amount 

 consumed by individual colonies also 

 varies. 



Mr. Wells fed " a lot of comb honey;" 

 very little shrinkage here you see. He 

 fed it to colonies he was afterwards 

 quite sure had enough already, and in 

 addition he fed it so late in winter that 

 it crowded the queen for brood-rear- 

 ing, whereas my March feeding gives 

 two months, on an average (for this 

 locality), that the bees will use much 

 more than they can gather to good 

 advantage for brood-rearing, if they 

 have it. 



If my article on feeding io the Feb- 

 ruary number is read carefully, it will be 

 seen I was talking of whether colonies 

 could be saved by feeding sugar syrup 

 in the cellar in winter. The question 

 of the brood-nest ; becoming crowded 

 later is another matter altogether, and 

 one should not attempt to avoid that 

 by having it light in fall or winter, at 

 least in localities such as Iowa. 



"Millions at our house" up until 

 about fruit-bloom, is a good motto for 

 "this locality." At fruit-bloom, if 

 favorable, comes the question of more 

 room or increase. With me, I never 

 have the least bit of trouble in getting 

 bees to move honey to make room for 

 brood, where I put on built comb ; in 

 fact, they sometimes do more of it than 

 I like. 



I lost 3 colonies myself the past win- 

 ter, simply because I failed to practice 

 what I preached, and "feed them an- 

 other .5 or 10 pounds." I figured they 

 "had enough," and two were dead a 

 few days before setting out of the eel- 



LEWIS HIVES 



Are Built Like Furniture 

 Are Perfect in All Respects 



Send for Annual Catalos which will tell 

 you who is your nearest Distributer. 

 G. B, I^ewis Company, Wntertown, Wis, 



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