216 



TBE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



the very end of the harvest. This results in 

 a larger proportion of unfinished sections, 

 but from the "feeding back " of about 1<), 000 

 pounds of extracted honey,. I know that these 

 sections can be finished up at a profit. This 

 part of the subject was once so thoroughly 

 discussed in the Review, and the gist of the 

 whole matter afterwards gathered into a 

 chapter of "Advanced Bee Culture, " that 

 it would scarcely be fair to old subscribers to 

 go over the ground again. If any new sub- 

 scribers are interested they can either buy 

 the back numbers containing the discussion 

 or the book just mentioned. I am not say- 

 ing this to advertise, as I should be perfectly 

 willing to go over this part of the subject 

 again if the majority preferred it. 



Fall feeding, to give the bees an abun- 

 dance for winter, is the next kind of feeding 

 that demands attention, and for this purpose 

 I think that nearly all will agree that sugar 

 is the best food. Instead of tryin^, to get a 

 bounty on honey because there is one on 

 sugar, let us try getting all of the honey pos- 

 sible from the bees, replacing it with the 

 cheaper and safer sugar. Let us so manage 

 the bees that the close of the season finds 

 them destitute, because we have taken away 

 the ten-cent honey and it can be replaced 

 with three-cent syrup. 



Let me digress here enough to say that 

 most bee-keepers dread feeding because this 

 part of bee-keeping has been given less at- 

 tention than some of the other branches; 

 they have not been educated to feed and 

 have not the proper arrangement for doing 

 the work. Most of bee-keepers, when ob- 

 liged to feed, make the syrup in small quan- 

 tities, perhaps on the kitchen stove, and 

 then do the feeding with anything that can 

 be picked up. There must be some kind of 

 a tank on a stove in the honey house. This 

 stove may be a wood stove, or it may be gas- 

 olene or kerosene. I have always used the 

 latter. The tank must be large enough to 

 make a large quantity of feed at one time. 

 The tank that I used held 100 pounds. 

 There must be a gate at the bottom to draw 

 off the feed. To carry it to the hives, a large 

 watering pot is a good thing. Then have 

 feeders of such a style, and so arranged that 

 it is only necessary to walk along and slide 

 back the covers and pour in the feed. The 

 Heddon feeder will hold as much as fifteen 

 pounds. Two fillings would be sufiicient to 

 supply any colony with stores for winter. 

 When feeding is made a busmess, and every- 



thing is properly arranged, it loses its an- 

 noying features and becomes as pleasant as 

 any apiarian work. 



Sugar syrup for winter ought to be about 

 the consistency of thin honey, and about 

 one-fifth honey added to prevent granulation. 

 Feeding ought not to be delayed later than 

 September. I have fed earlier than this, but 

 found no advantage in so doing. If done in 

 time for the bees to seal the stores it is suffi- 

 cient. If feeding has been delayed until it 

 is so cool weather that the bees are not in- 

 clined to leave the cluster, they may be fed 

 by putting some rather hot feed in the feed- 

 er and setting it under the hive, when the 

 heat from the feed will rouse up the bees and 

 they will come down and take the feed; but 

 feeding ought not to be neglected until this 

 plan is necessary. 



To know how much honey to feed, take 

 enough combs from the hives to fill a hive. 

 Extract the honey. Put them in an empty 

 hive and weigh all together. Add from 

 hree to five pounds for the bees. Weigh 

 each colony, deduct the weight of hives 

 and combs, and the remainder will show 

 about how much honey is in the hives. For 

 out-door wintering I feed until there are 

 twenty pounds in each hive: for in-doors, I 

 give fifteen pounds. Very large colonies 

 might need more. Better have too much 

 than too little. 



There, friends, tell me what errors I have 

 made, and what important points I have 

 left unnoticed, and I will put your views in 

 the September Review, so that those who 

 must feed for winter may have the advantage 

 of the wisdom that comes from a multitude 

 of counselors. 



eXXRKCXED. 



HoriEontal Wiring a Great Success. 



"To test more carefully horizontal wiring 

 we have been trying frames with three, four, 

 and five horizontal wires, for the purpose of 

 determining which number of wires would 

 give the best results. Three wires, such as 

 we have been advocating, do quite well ; but 

 four wires are better : but we do not yet dis- 

 cover that the five wires have any particular 

 advantage over the four, because the combs 

 built from light brood foundation on the 

 four wires are very nice. From some care- 

 ful experiments we have been making, we 

 find that the medium brood foundation gives 

 rather better combs than the light brood, 

 under the same conditions. We therefore 



