AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 659 



Sugar Strup for Feeding. — I want to say a few words about making sugar 

 syrup. I know it is too late to benefit any one this year, but It may save some one 

 lots of fussing next year. I have seen a good deal in the bee-papers this fall about 

 the way to make it, but the way I have prepared it for a number of years is ahead 

 of anything I have seen yet, I think, at least for feeding on a large scale. I have 

 fed a good many barrels of sugar in the last six or seven years, and the way I have 

 made it into syrup is this : 



I simply take clean barrels that will hold water, and put in equal parts, by 

 measure, of sugar and soft water. (Hard water will do— I have used it, but it is 

 not as good.) Stir well together. If made in the morning, stir again at noon, and 

 at night, and by the next morning most, if not quite, all of the sugar will be dis- 

 solved. If it is not, stir well occasionally until it is. I have found a difference in 

 the time it takes granulated sugar of the same brand to dissolve. Of course in this 

 way it can be made in as small a quantity as one may wish, by using a keg, can, 

 pail, or anything else that will hold water. 



Of course syrup made in this way is equal to, if not better (I think it is better) 

 than that made by the percolator process, for flannel or cheese-cloth cannot do any 

 good except to keep the water confined with the sugar until it is dissolved, and if it 

 is so that it can get through at all, the first will not have much sugar with it. I 

 think that is why the bees take hold of it so slowly when fed by inverted crocks or 

 stuffed feeders. By the plan I have described, we can keep the sugar and water 

 together until the sugar is all dissolved, and I think it is quicker and easier to carry 

 the feed, already made, and pour it into a feeder, than it would be to bother with 

 crocks, plates, cheese-cloth, etc. 



I use a feeder constructed like the Miller feeder, only a little deeper, so I can 

 feed all that I wish at one time. I think it was in the " Review," last fall, that I 

 read an article written by Mr. R. L. Taylor, in which he said that feeding was the 

 most trying of the apiarist's duties. I do not so regard it. I can make a lot of 

 syrup, and feed a large number of colonies, without very much work — at least I 

 have fed from 200 to 350 colonies their full rations every fall for six years. I 

 have had help, but I could do it alone. 



Sugar syrup made by this cold-water process is much better than that made by 

 boiling, as that which is made by heat will crystallize, and the former will not — at 

 least will not during the winter, as I have often examined colonies that had some of 

 this syrup left in the spring, and found it in nicer condition than when fed in the 

 fall. 



A Super Clearer. — I will now try to describe a board which I use for clearing 

 the supers of bees. This board I ma;de the first summer I commenced keeping bees 

 — IB years ago — and have used it ever since, although I have tried nearly all of the 

 different kinds of bee-escapes. I prefer the board to any of them. It costs about 4 

 cents for material, and 5 or 10 minutes' work to make one. 



To make it, take a board the size of the top of the hive, and four pieces of lath, 

 or any thin strips about H inch thick, and nail a piece on each side and end of the 

 board, so that the super will set on these strips. Cut a hole through the strip ou the 

 front of the board, so that one bee can go through very easily. When ready to re- 

 move a super, lift it up and place the board on top of the hive, with the hole cut in 

 the strip in front, so that when the bees come out they will be on the outside of the 

 hive in front. 



Now, lest some may not understand this description, I will say that the board, 

 when done, should be just like the bottom-board to the dovetailed hive, with a strip 

 in front the same as at the back, and a small hole cut through the center of the 



