284 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



the moiildiness and damp from the floor-board, and let it be well dried. 

 The bottoms of the combs often become mouldy in the winter, especi- 

 ally in light stocks, and it will be a good thing to cut off the lower 

 portions, which may be done with a table-knife, and without danger, by 

 turning the hive on one side, in the evening or early in the morning, or 

 at any time, if you take the precaution of wearing a bee-dress, here- 

 after described. The bees will soon renew the combs, and their health 

 will be improved by the removal of the decayed portions. 



Feeding. — Many swarms die in spring for want of food, and ihe wise 

 apiarian will therefore feed his bees liberally, bearing in mind that what 

 he gives them is not lost, as they can fully store for their owners' use 

 what is not needed for their own support. 



Begin to feed the light stocks ; a liberal supply of food will be amply 

 repaid by the consequent health and vigor of your bees, and the abund- 

 ant store they will collect for your future benefit. And do not prema- 

 turely encourage the bees to go in search of food, but rather confine 

 them to their homes. Guard against the admission of stranger bees 

 while yours are feeding. Give honey now, if you can, rather than 

 syrup, as it forms a better ingredient than sugar in the jelly which sup- 

 ports the young brood. 



The consumption of food in a hive is now perhaps greater than at 

 any period of the year. The queen lays from one hundred to two 

 hundred eggs daily, and the increase of the brood is so prodigious, that 

 it is impossible for any except a Avell-stored hive to meet the demand 

 for food. Many persons wonder that their bees die in the spring, when 

 they have surviv^ed the winter; but the food consumed during the cold 

 weather is comparatively very small to what it is during breeding time. 

 On this ground, then, feed abundantly all the stocks, but especially the 

 light ones. 



Feeding outside the hive, by placing food at the entrance, is a bad 

 method, as stranger bees are attracted, which deprive your bees of a 

 proportion of that which you have provided for them. Feeding at the 

 bottom disturbs the bees, lowers the temperature of the hive when the 

 food is introduced, and thus occasions loss of life; therefore, to obviate 

 these evils, ingenious feeding-pans have been invented for supplying food 

 at the top of the hive. 



The following directions for feeding bees are from "The Bee-Keepers* 



Chart:" "Before feeding 

 is commenced the hives 

 should be set down upon 

 the floors and the entrances 

 for the bees so closed as 

 to admit only one or two 

 at a time. Two or three 

 inch auger holes may be 

 bored in the top, and 

 piiELPs'8 BEE-FEEDEE. thc fccdcr placcd by the 



side of them and covered 

 with a small box, and this covered with an old carpet to pi'cvent other 

 bees from scenting the feed." Phelps's Bee-Feeder is thus figured 



