March, 1916. 



Favourite Feeder. 



autumn when it is necessary to feed 

 rapidly another set of feeders is used, 

 acting on a different system. 



When feeding up winter stores in 

 September, now being almost univer- 

 sally recognized here as tlic time to 

 feed bees (spring stimulation in au- 

 tumn), these appliances require to pro- 

 vide ready access to the syrup by a 

 large force of bees at one time. We 

 have this secured in illustrations 3, 4, 

 and 5. The first is made of tin, an ob- 

 jectionable medium perhaps for feed- 

 ing bees, but it will be noted that the 

 bees come little in contact with this 

 material, as the footholds found around 

 the interior are made of circular rims 

 of wood on which the bees rest when 

 sucking up the syrup. Number 4, the 

 " Favorite," is constructed on the same 

 principle, but it has the advantage of 

 being all wood, being turned out of a 

 solid block; therefore, bees take to it 

 readily. Of late years it is becoming 

 very popular, and bids fair to be the 

 regular favorite with surburbanites 

 and similar classes of beekeepers. 



Both of these have the advantage of 

 being easily cleaned, a necessity if the 

 food given to the bees is to be whole- 

 some and guaranteed to keep well. 

 Bees have to leave their warm nest and 

 ascend to the syrup compartment, but 

 during early autumn that is no detri- 

 ment, as if the food is supplied hot 

 this space is as warm as any part of the 

 hive. A strong colony carries down 

 5 to 10 pounds of syrup. Yet another 

 style is very popular. With these the 

 bees have to rise still higher above their 

 frames. The well known " Canadian" 

 feeder is a first-class specimen of the 

 type, and is almost universally used in 

 this country when feeding up driven 

 bees in autumn. My own took 10 

 pounds of syrup at one time, and a 

 special one had a capacity for 20 

 pounds. They did very efficient and 

 rapid work, and with one, or at most 

 two fillings, supplied the necessary 

 winter stores. 



Illustration No. 5 shows a reliable 

 and rapid float feeder, every part of it 

 constructed of wood. It is generally 

 made longer than shown, and the com- 

 partment in which the food is found is 

 divided from the other by a division of 

 perforated metal through which the 

 syrup runs, raising the float gradually, 

 so that no bees are drowned. It is 

 generally supplied with a sheet of glass 

 for an inner covering, to show when it 

 needs replenishing, and over this is 

 fitted a wooden lid or cover. To en- 

 able bees to ascend to the food in each 

 case the quilt or lower coverings have 

 a round or square hole to provide ac- 

 cess. If there are four, the piece is so 

 cut in each that one when folded back 



American ^^e Journal 



points to each point of the compass, 

 thus securing a level site for the feeder. 



Formerly I did open air feeding, but 

 later the presence of other bees in- 

 duced me to discontinue it. A very 

 large glass case was hung from the 

 roof of a shed, to which the bees had 

 ready access. Even in rainy weather 

 they worked in comfort under shelter. 

 Another open air feeder was in the 

 form of a shallow trough into which a 

 small quantity of icarm syrup was 

 poured every hour on fine days. The 

 food was little more than sweetened 

 water and served to keep bees con- 

 tented. 



Another feeder, somewhat like No. 5, 

 had two compartments, one for nitro- 

 genous and the other for non-nitro- 

 genous food. I was able to feed not 

 only syrup but also flour inside the 

 hive. 



What we call soft candy is a favor- 

 ite food with many. In winter and 

 early spring it is the only food admis- 

 sible. The provision of a two or three 

 pound cake above the frames saves 

 many a good colony from death. At 

 times it is medicated, and in spring, 

 very generally mixed before cooling 

 with rye meal or flour as " bee-bread " 

 for the baby bees. 



As a spring stimulant, I prefer a fine 

 fat comb reserved from last autumn. 

 For gentle stimulation the cells are 

 merely scratched, and the honey does 

 not run, but the bees scent the rich 

 store and gradually turn it into more 

 bees. This is an excellent spring stim- 

 ulant. 



Pollen in most seasons is rather 

 scarce, so I supply a substitute by plac- 

 ing an artificial supply in corners of 

 the garden only on bright days, and 

 on very sunny ones I fill the crocus 

 cups as I go up and down the rows in 

 two large beds of the bountiful bee 

 flower. Water is amply supplied, often 

 renewed, and given as warm as possible. 



Three other plans deserve at least 

 mention, the frame syrup feeder, and 

 the dry sugar feeder favored by Sim- 

 mons, both used at the side of the clus- 

 ter, and feeding with comb the cells of 

 which are scratched and then placed 

 flat above or below the brood-nest. I 

 rather like the last. 



Banff^, Scotland. 



Food Value of Honey 



BY I. E. CRANE. 



■ CONFESS it was a treat, on open- 

 ing the American Bee Journal for 

 December, instead of the often re- 

 peated statement that honey is a luxury, 

 I found a well illustrated article show- 

 ing very conclusively that honey has 

 greater food value per pound than 

 most other articles of diet that are es- 

 teemed necessities, and for which more 

 money is paid. 



Let me give another illustration : 

 Take a pound of butter that costs 32 

 cents, and work into it a pound of 

 good granulated honey costing 16 cents, 

 and we have, at the co t of 24 cents a 

 pound, an article that the average boy 

 or girl would prefer to spread on their 

 bread to butter alone. I believe there 

 can be no mistake about the correct- 

 ness of these statements, and the ques- 

 tion at once presents itself how can 



these facts be brought before the mass 

 of consumers. I suppose no nation 

 ever spent so much for advertising as 

 the American people. Almost every 

 paper, magazine or periodical has all 

 sorts of ads. religious and secular, 

 political and business, pictorial and 

 plain, ads that bring results, and ads 

 that waste money. 



I doubt it will ever pay to advertise 

 snowshoes in New Orleans, or hard- 

 ware in a ladies' fashion journal, but 

 advertising is nevertheless a very prac- 

 tical way of educating people on many 

 subjects. The present use of cereals 

 for breakfast food has come from the 

 extensive advertising of these foods. 

 The margin on the sale of honey is too 

 small to admit of such e.xpensive ad- 

 vertising, but when I saw that article 

 in the American Bee Journal I said at 

 once, why cannot this or something 

 like it be put in a leaflet or folder and 

 given away with each retail sale of 

 honey ? If I go to the drug store and 

 buy a tooth brush or a bottle of tur- 

 pentine I am pretty sure when I get 

 home to find a little leaflet wrapped 

 about the bottle. Cannot we beekeep- 

 ers take the hint ? A leaflet on the 

 " Food Value of Honey" would doubt- 

 less be read by all lovers of honey, and 

 what is of even more importance, they 

 would tell their neighbors and friends 

 about it, and so the news spreads, for 

 it would be news to the great mass of 

 people. 



I believe we would be surprised if we 

 knew how much people talk about 

 what they eat, especially children. Why 

 not give them a chance to talk intelli- 

 gently about honey? People who buy 

 and eat honey do so because they like 

 it, just as girls buy and eat candy and 

 boys buy and smoke cigarettes. How 

 much better would it not be if they 

 knew that the use of honey in our diet 

 is as legitimate and as economical as 

 the use of eggs or oranges ? 



What kind of a folder shall we have ? 

 The facts should be boil;d down to the 

 limit. Whether a leaflet or a larger 

 folder, it should be made as cheap as 

 possible so the beekeeper or bottler 

 can buy and use them bythe thousands, 

 so that as our goodly land flows with 

 milk and honey, it will all be called for 

 at paying prices. 



Middleburry, Vt. 



The Passing of a Well Known 

 Beekeeper 



BY J. E. PLEASANTS. 



DELOS WOOD, a well and favorably 

 known beekeeper of southern Cali- 

 fornia, has recently passed away. 

 He was born near Madison, Jefferson 



