1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



595 



that this is not asiaborions asit at first appears, 

 and it has this advantage: our queens can be 

 reared at a time when nearly every queen will 

 be perfection itself, all being reared in the 

 height of the honey season, when the best 

 queens can be reared with the least work. 



Still another plan is to rear the queens and 

 drones in the best pan of the honey season, 

 and, when ready, take the drone colony, and as 

 many of the nuclei as have queens of mating 

 age. to the bee-cellar at about 11 o'clock a. m., 

 and leave them thei-e till 4 p. m., when they are 

 to be brought out and allowed to fly, after all 

 other drones have ceased flying for the day. If 

 each nucleus and the drone colony are fed a 

 little diluted sweet just before setting out, and 

 the hives set facing the sun, queens and drones 

 will fly the same as they would were it three 

 hours earlier in the day. If you have no cellar 

 handy, the bees can be confined to their hives 

 for the five hours spoken of, if ample ventila- 

 tion is provided, when the result will be the 

 same. 



But after a trial of these I have come to the 

 conclusion that, for the practtical bee-keeper, 

 the first plan is the one to follow; and, let me 

 whisper in your ear, the mismated queens 

 which you will get by this practical plan will 

 give you just as good results in honey as will 

 any of the purely mated queens; and honey is 

 what the average bee-keeper is after. What 

 the average bee-keeper wants is one or two 

 good pure Italian queens to rear his queens 

 from; then let them mate as they please; and 

 let me assure the reader that such a mode of 

 procedure will give perfect satisfaction so far 

 as honey-gathering is concerned. Of course, it 

 will be necessary to have a good queen to rear 

 stock from every two or three years, else we 

 shall soon run into a race of bees we shall not 

 be satisfied with. 



THE STEPHENS FEEDER. 



A FULL DESCRIPTION OF IT. 



By Geo. W. Stcphem. 



could be sold so low that it wouldn't pay one to 

 make them for himself. 



Take a piece of board }4 inch thick, and saw 

 it in the shape of a Bland dollar, but five or six 

 inches in diameter; then cut eight notches, 

 equidistant, around the edge, about as large as 

 a K-inch auger-hole; and with an extension 

 bit bore a 3>h hole ]4 inch deep. See Fig. 1. 



Last fall I had 33 colonies of bees to feed; 

 and, not having feeders enough, and having 

 waited in vain for a fall flow of nectar until I 

 thought it was too late tos.-nd for more feeders, 

 I hastily made some which I found to work 

 satisfactorily; in fact, I like them for many 

 reasons better than any oiher feeder I have 

 ever seen or tried. I mail one to Gleanings 

 and will also try to explain to its readers how 

 it is made. It is not patented, and any one who 

 is handy with tools can make them. They 



Get another piece of board, which may be % 

 thick, and cut it the same size as the first one; 

 but saw out from the center a piece 33^ inches 

 in diameter, as in Fig. 2. Save the small piece, 

 and nail a cleat across it, as it will make a 

 handy cover when wanted, as in Fig. 3. 



Use basswood, because pine and some other 

 kinds of wood seem to give the bees a bad taste 

 in their mouths, and they do not take the syrup 

 down quite so readily. Now get a strip of tin 

 two inches wide, and long enough to encircle 

 the pieces and lap about }4 inch. Nail it 

 around the first piece so that about K inch of 

 the strip will project on the under side. Nail 

 the second piece flush with the upper edge of 

 the tin. Take a Mason glass jar, either a pint 

 or a quart; knock the glass lining out of the 

 cap, and make a few perforations close to the 

 top of the cap. Don't make the perforations 

 too large; the size of a common knitting-needle 

 is about right. 



Now your feeder is finished, and it is a good 

 one. Spread a piece of burlap over the brood- 

 frames, with a hole cut in its center 3 or 4 inches 

 in diameter; set the feeder over the opening; 

 fill thti jar with syrup, or sugar and water; in- 

 vert it and place it top down in the feeder, as 

 in Fig. 5. Put on an empty hive-body, and 

 spread over the bees around the feeder pieces of 

 carpet or any thing that will keep the heat of 

 the cluster in. Some might prefer to use a 

 board with an opening in it instead of the bur- 

 lap. Those who prefer to feed sugar and water 

 instead of syrup will find that, by putting sev- 

 eral pieces of flannel or other material in the 

 mouth of the jar before screwing on the cap, 

 they will get the percolation principle to per- 



