1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



385 



man- Alexander feeder. Take a board about 

 i in. thick and 4J wide. Bore a three-inch 

 hole through it and nail it on the top at one 

 end of an Alexander feeder. You can use 

 either quart or one-half-gallon Mason fruit- 

 jars. It can be used either with or without 

 the jar, according to the amount you want 

 to feed. The jar should project down in 

 the feeder about ^ inch or more. I make my 

 feeders out of 2X4 material, boring them out 

 with an expansive bit. No special cap is 

 needed. Just punch some holes in a fruit- 

 jar lid. Harlet Condra. 



Seymour, Iowa. 



[This feeder was illustrated on page 151 of 

 our last issue. — Ed.] 



SPRINGS TO HOLD THE ENTRANCE-BLOCKS 

 IN PLACE. 



I have a very simple device to use for keep- 

 ing the entrance- blocks in place. I have 

 found the blocks so often moved, and per- 

 haps a weak colony robbed out, that I tried 

 the plan I now use, and find it works per- 

 fectly. I use a spring for each block, made 

 from a piece of No. y steel wire, 8 in. long, 

 with I in. at one end bent at right angles. 

 The short end is driven into the front of the 

 hive about 2^ in. from the side, and high 

 enough so that the lower end is just above 



the bottom. A small staple straddles the 

 spring an inch from the top, leaving about 

 6 in. clear. The entrance-block (fXli on 

 edge) slips between the free end of the 

 spring and the front of the hive. The springs 

 are perpendicular when in place. 

 McAlpine, Ont., Can. E. H. Clare. 



LATE FALL FEEDING AS ADVOCATED BY E. 

 W. ALEXANDER. 



I wish to say I most heartily indorse what 

 Mr. E. W. Alexander says in regard to late 

 fall feeding of bees. Jan. 1, page 29. I have 

 experimented along that line for several 

 years, and I have found where fed heavily 

 with sugar syrup, owing to climatic changes, 

 or weather, or some other way, possibly the 

 conditions of the colony, the stores fed would 

 granulate unless there was added 5 lbs. of 



honey to every 20 lbs. of sugar used. If tar- 

 taric acid was used instead, I have never lost 

 a single colony fed this way, and packed five 

 or six inches on sides and back end of hive, 

 10 to 12 inches of buckwheat chaff on the 

 top, with the cover of the hive slightly raised 

 at the back end of the hive, then closed after 

 zero weather is past. My bees have been al- 

 ways in fine condition in the spring. 

 Dushor, Pa. C. W. Rumsey. 



THE ACTION OF THE NEW NATIONAL PURE- 

 FOOD LAW WITH REFERENCE TO 

 HONEY PUT UP IN TIN. 



Please tell me if extracted in tin packages 

 is subject to the food and drug law. 

 North Creek, Ohio. F. J. Krumm. 



[Honey put up in tin, especially original 

 packages, does not necessarilj^ require labels; 

 but air such honey, when shipped from one 

 State to another, must be exactly as billed; 

 that is to say, it must conform entirely to 

 the representations of the seller to buyer. 

 If labels are used they must exactly repre- 

 sent the contents. — Ed.] 



PIE-PLATES FOR HOLDING FEED WHEN COL- 

 ONIES ARE SHORT OF STORES IN COLD 

 WEATHER. 



Last fall I bought a lot of bees that had 

 been worked for extracted honey. The one 

 who worked them left enough honey to feed 

 the bees until the next season. But as it was 

 late in the season I concluded not to feed un- 

 til needed, or to defer feeding until spring if 

 possible; but early in the winter the children 

 where the bees were located moved the lids 

 and cloths on the hives so the stores that 

 they had were robbed and wasted. 



After saving the remnants I saw that I 

 would have to feed. After the first attempt 

 at making candy in greased pans I was some- 

 what disgusted with all the bother and fuss. 

 Then I remembered that some one told me, 

 or I read it or dreamed it, that the prepared 

 hot candy could be poured into pasteboard 

 box lids and bodies cut down to the proper 

 depth. 



As I was fussing with this plan and now 

 then expressing my disgust, a friend who 

 was living with me gave me an idea. The 

 next few minutes found me riding as fast as 

 I could to the nearest bakery; and, after ar- 

 riving home, all the fuss and bother was 

 over, as all I had to do was to pour the hot 

 candy into the paper pie-plates that I pur- 

 chased, and set them away to cool, after 

 which they were given to the bees. 



Before my friend mentioned the pie-plates 

 the different books and papers I had read 

 put loaf sugar in my mind; but I think my 

 friend's plates saved me money, and the bees 

 received the required feed with less difiicul- 

 ty, as I found a few with liquid feed near 

 the cluster, and only a little granulated hon- 

 ey in the hive. 



It seems to me as though the editor and 

 some others did a little experimenting on 

 this line last winter, but too late to help me; 

 and as I never read or heard of the paper 



