THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



335 



mig-ht prove too limited. Brunt Hall, 

 the new place of meeting-, is in a new 

 building- where everything- is modern. 

 There are adjoining- committee and 

 toilet rooms, pood drinking- water, also 

 excellent elevator service both day and 

 nig-ht. Chicago bee-keepers with their 

 characteristic enter prise and liberality, 

 pay for the use of the hall. 



tPH^t^^' mW 



My Bees are all in the cellar. They 

 were put in from November 4th to 

 November 10th. Part of them had not 

 had a Hig-ht in two weeks, and some of 

 them had a flight the day before 

 being- put in. Had the apiary been 

 near the cellar where the bees could 

 have been rushed into the cellar 

 in two or three hours if I saw that 

 winter was coming- on, I might have 

 left them out two or three weeks longer. 

 As it was, they had to be packed up 

 and brought home, then unpacked, and 

 carried into the cellar, and it would 

 not answer to wait until winter was 

 coming- on before beg-inning- the work. 

 None of them had a flight after being 

 moved. The bottom boards and covers 

 were removed, a piece of rag carpet 

 laid over each hive, and the hives 

 stacked up with two-inch blocks be- 

 tween them. This is the earliest I have 

 ever put bees in the cellar, and I shall 

 be interested in seeing how the3' pass 

 the winter. 



Feeding Bees in Winter. 



If bees need feeding in winter, the 

 usual advice is to give them candy, un- 

 less combs of honey can be secured. 

 This advice is g-ood but the inference 

 that syrup cannot be successfully fed 

 is not correct, provided the bees are in 

 a dry, warm cellar. For instance, the 

 sudden and unexpected closing of the 

 honey harvest in 1904, left the 80 colon- 

 ies of Mr. Walter Harmer, of Manistee, 

 Michigan, short of stores— some of 

 them with scarcely any sealed stores. 

 He did not have the money with which 

 fo" buy sugar until he had sold some of 



his honey, consequently the bees went 

 into the cellar very deficient in stores. 

 In December he had the money to buy 

 sugar and began feeding the bees a 

 syrup made as follows: The kettle 

 was filled nearly full of granulated 

 sugar, a mark made on the side of the 

 kettle showing the height to which it 

 was filled, then boiling water was 

 poured in until it reached this mark. 

 In other words, the water simply filled 

 the spaces between the grains of sugar. 

 The kettle was set upon the stove and 

 the syrup stirred until the sugar had 

 all dissolved. This syrup was fed 

 warm in what has been called the 

 pepper box feeder. Mr. Harmer made 

 them from pint. Mason jars, by remov- 

 ing the porcelain from the covers and 

 perforating the covers with a small 

 punch. If a colony was at all weak, a 

 hole was cut in the cover, over which 

 the jar of syrup was inverted. With 

 strong colonies, the covers were simply 

 removed and the jars of syrup inverted 

 upon the tops of the brood frames, a 

 little rim of tin being used to hold up 

 the can so that the bees could gain 

 access to the syrup. After the upper 

 tiers of colonies had been fed, they 

 were placed somewhere else, and the 

 bees fed in the next tier; in fact, the 

 bees were fussed with, fed, and the 

 hives piled over and over, until one 

 would naturally think that the life 

 would have been worried out of them, 

 but it was not, as they came through 

 in fine condition, with no trace what- 

 ever of disease. The cellar was dug 

 in dry sand, the temperature kept not 

 far from 40 degrees, and the covers 

 slid forward on the hives so as to leave 

 a crack of an inch at the back end for 

 ventilation of the hive. 



Mr. Harmer does not recommend this 

 method of management; he would pre- 

 fer to feed in the fall before putting the 

 bees into the cellar, but what he has 

 done shows what rati be done should 

 occasion require. It also shows that, 

 with the proper food, disturbance 



