1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



689 



probably just as well, and perhaps even bet- 

 ter, to use the Doolittle division - board 

 feeder holding about G lbs. of thick feed at 

 a time. During the season, any combs which 

 are found that are too old, or which, for some 

 reason or other, are not perfect, whether 

 due to drone- cells or irregularities, can be 

 gradually pushed to the outside of the brood- 

 frames; "then in the fall, when it is time to 

 nut in the feeder, provided the division-board 

 feeders are used, these defective combs can 

 be very easily gotten rid of with a very small 

 amount of labor, and with no loss of brood. 

 Furthermore, if the colonies need feeding, 

 these outside combs will not contain much 

 honey. On a cool day an outyard can be 

 looked over very quickly, and the old combs 

 that are on the outside of the brood-nest re- 

 moved with very little trouble. If a follower 

 is used, the removal of one comb and the 

 follower makes room for the feeder; but if 

 the combs completely fill the hives, two 

 combs must be removed. It is rather bad 

 practice, if sealed covers are used, to break 

 the propolis sealing around the covers of the 

 hives after cold weather has set in; but, as 

 we said before, there are many instances 

 where the feeding must be done late; and 

 there is this advantage — that, when the 

 weather is cold, the feeders may be put in 

 in a very short time, and with but little 

 shaking of bees from the combs that are re- 

 moved. 



HOW TO MAKE THE SYRUP. 



Elmer Hutchinson, in the October issue of 

 The Bee-keepers' Review, rather defends late 

 fall feeding, and describes his method for 

 making the feed. He says that, while he has 

 an oil-stove that he uses for cooking at the 

 outyards, he finds that the water for making 

 the syrup can be much more quickly brought 

 to the boiling-point in a galvanized tub over 

 a good fire out of doors. He sets the tub on 

 four or five stones, fills it with water, and 

 builds the fire underneath. He then pours 

 in the sugar until the water will dissolve no 

 more. Four and a half gallons of water will 

 dissolve 100 lbs. of sugar, making the syrup 

 about the proportion of 2'-. pounds of sugar 

 to one pound of water. The syrup that we 

 have been feeding here this fall has been 

 made of 2}4 lbs. of sugar and one of water. 



If the weather is cool enough so that the 

 bees are considerably drawn together toward 

 one part of the hive, it is best to have the 

 syrup quite warm when it is put into the 

 feeder; but if the bees are scattered around 

 pretty much through all the hive, there is no 

 particular advantage in having the syrup 

 warm unless the nights are cold. 



Mr. Hutchinson has never found it neces- 

 sary to use acid in the svrup to prevent hard 

 granulation, and our \lr. Bain corroborates 

 tnis view. Many others, however, seem to 

 tliink the use of acid imperative, although 

 some prefer honey insteaa of acid. We are 

 not certain as to the reason for this differ- 

 ence of opinion, but possibly "locality" or 

 the amount of stirring which the syrup gets 

 has something to do with its granulation. We 

 do not advise stirring more than ;.enough 



to get the sugar dissolved in the hot water. 

 If honey were to be used with the syrup to 

 prevent granulation it would be of the ut- 

 most importance to be sure that it contained 

 no disease germs. Rather than use honey 

 from an unknown source, we should prefer 

 to use the acid or to run the risk of having 

 the syrup granulate. 



The best time of day for putting feed into 

 the feeder is toward the close of the after- 

 noon. It is not advisable to do the work in 

 the morning or early in the day, tor the rea- 

 son that the bees are always excited, and 

 robbing might be started, espec ially if it were 

 warm enough for the bees to fly. K'ight here 

 is a point in favor of the cold-weather feed- 

 ing, for there is no such danger of robbing, 

 of course, when the bees can not fly on ac- 

 count of the cool temperature. With the 

 cans of feed c'.istributed at regular intervals 

 throughout t'.e yard we have found that 100 

 colonies may be fed in an hour's time provid- 

 ing the worlv is rapidly done. Every thing 

 must be right, so that no stops need be made 

 for any thing. 



We fix the feed at home and carry it to the 

 yards in the regular five-gallon honey-cans, 

 as these are about the largest-sized cans that 

 can be handled conveniently by one person. 

 If two were doing the feeding a larger can 

 might be used. 



While the syrup is still hot we load it into 

 the auto, six or eight cans at a time, and car- 

 ry it rapidly to the yard. When we reach 

 the edge of the apiary, we take the cans, one 

 at a time, and locate them through the yard 

 where the markings on the hives show that 

 we shall need them. If the cans have good 

 strong handles we are able to carry two at a 

 time, one in each hand; but the difficulty is 

 that the handles are liable to tear loose from 

 the can at one end and drag through the 

 hand, cutting the fingers and allowing the 

 heavy can to fall on the feet. For this reason 

 we prefer to carry one can at a time in the 

 arms. If a small rope sling were used, two 

 cans could be carried without danger. 



When we are ready to commence feeding 

 we fill a large sprinkling-can, with the rose 

 removed, and then proceed at once to pour 

 the syrup into the division-board feeders in 

 every hive. Each feeder, as mentioned be- 

 fore, will hold about six pounds of thick syr- 

 up. By the time we have emptied one of the 

 five-gallon cans we have reached a point in 

 the yard where a new full one is waiting for 

 us, and we can proceed without stopping to 

 run for more cans. On the covers of the 

 hives are marked the number of pounds of 

 syrup which each hive is to receive. It is 

 likely that not all of the hives will need feed- 

 ing a second time, so the second day the 

 work can be done even more quickly than 

 the first time. When it is not too cool the 

 bees will have taken the syrup in one feeder 

 in 24 hours' time; but if the weather is very 

 cold they will require 48 hours; but this time 

 can be materially reduced if the syrup is 

 given hot. We would always give it hot if it 

 IS cold enough so that the cluster is contract- 

 ed.— H. H. R. 



