VOL. I. 



Mf\Y, 1891. 



NO. 5. 



Feeding Bees. 



BY MRS. L. HARRISON. 



I doubt very much the utility of 

 feeding bees, in the early spring, unless 

 to prevent starvation. September is 

 the best month to do spring feeding, 

 and be sure that each colony has an 

 abundant supply. Where there is a 

 dearth of honey, following fruit bloom, 

 it will pay big money to feed, provid- 

 ed there is a flow of nectar from white 

 clover. Universally in this locality, 

 during the interim between fruit bloom 

 and clover, there is a flow of honey 

 from dandelion, black and honey lo- 

 custs and wild cherry. It is poor 

 economy to feed bees when they can 

 gather sufficient for their daily wants, 

 and I noticed one spring a colony that 

 was fed a great deal that was no more 

 populous when clover bloomed than 

 others that had depended entirely up- 

 on their own exertions for a living. 



Last spring, in talking with a bee- 

 keeper of small means, he said, ''I 

 would like to spend my time with my 

 bees, feeding and building them up 

 strong for the clover bloom, but I can 

 not take the risk. If I work at my 

 trade, shoe-making, I'm sure of some- 

 thing, but, if I run in debt for sugar, 

 and spend my time feeding them, and 



get no returns, where will I be ? " This 

 man has over two hundred colonies of 

 bees, and when there is a flow of honey 

 his wife and children all turn in and 

 secure it. It is true that there has not 

 been a full crop of honey in this local- 

 ity for five or six yeass, but one season 

 he made more money from his bees 

 than he had accumulated in his life- 

 time at his trade. 



RXTRACTING FROM THE HKOOD-NEST. 



In "Seasonable Sayings," for April, 

 I find the following: "When you see 

 honey all capped in the brood-frames 

 during the honey flow or after, take it 

 with an extractor. Honey left on the 

 hive after the honey flow will be wast- 

 ed." O, please don't " take it with 

 an extractor." How do you, or I, or 

 anybody know whether they will be 

 able to fill these combs again before 

 frost ? How will it be wasted if left 

 in the hive ? Bees seem to regard 

 their sealed stores as a sacred trust, 

 and never open it unless driven to it, 

 Is it not a little cruel to whirl around 

 the bees babies in an extractor, scare 

 them half to death ? Does it pay to 

 extract from the brood-nest and have 

 to feed back? Is not the laborer 

 worthy of his hire? Should iv.^t the 

 owner be satisfied witli what is stored 



