THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



233 



1. Wlien sliall I commence to feed ? 



2. How shall Heed? that is, what sort of 

 a feeder is best? 



3. Ought not all colonies to be fed suffi- 

 ciently early in oi'der that the syiiip given 

 them may be capped ? It strikes me that late 

 feeding never ought to be done, say later tlian 



Oct. 1. SUBSCKIBEK. 



ANSWERS BY HILAS D. DAVIS. 



1. Bees should be fed about the 

 middle of September. 



2. A wooden feeder, so made 

 to prevent drowning. It is placed 

 over them in place of the section 

 case. 



3. By all means. 



ANSWERS BY R. L. TAYLOR. 



1. As soon after Sept. 15 as 

 I30ssible, or when there is no more 

 nectar for the bees to gather from 

 the fields. 



2. Heddon's large feeder is the 

 best and a tin milk pan the cheap- 

 est. 



3. That is best, but bees which 

 are to be wintered in a good 

 cellar will do well if fed so late 

 that the syrup is not capped. 



ANSWERS BY C. C. MILLER. 



1. As soon as you feel pretty 

 sure the bees will not gather 

 enough stores for winter, even if 

 that comes in August, although 

 September may do as well. 



2. Any feeder that will allow 

 the work to be done safely and 

 rapidl}'. One good way is to fill 

 empty combs with syrup. 



3. Late feeding is very unde- 

 sirable. 



ANSWERS BY G. W. DEMAREE. 



If your bees need it, feed them 

 a little from time to time to keep 

 them from want, and just after the 

 first killing frost feed them as fast 

 as you can get them to take the 

 syrup till they have a supply for 

 winter. Common fruit jars that 

 will hold a quart or half gallon 

 are good substitutes for a feeder. 

 Fill them with syrup and tie a thin 

 cotton cloth over their mouths and 

 invert them on top of the frames. 



Four or more may be inverted over 

 a strong colony at the same time. 

 I have fed on a slatted board at the 

 entrance of the hive after dark, 

 using the fruit jars with good re- 

 sults. 



ANSWERS BY J. H. MARTIN. 



1. Feed up in September ; feeding 

 can be done in October, but for my 

 locality, I prefer to have equalizing 

 and feeding all out of the way dur- 

 ing this month. 



2. A simplicity feeder is a good 

 enough feeder for me. I use them 

 singly and several together. To 

 feed only a few pounds, I use one 

 feeder holding about two pounds. 

 If I wish to feed a quantity I hang 

 several feeders in a special frame 

 in an upper story. 



3. It is well to have the syrup 

 capped, but we have had bees win- 

 ter finely' where much syrup was not 

 capped. The bees were put in a dry 

 repository. Dampness would prob- 

 ably sour such uncapped stores. 



ANSWERS BY JAMES HEDDON. 



1. It depends upon the latitude in 

 which you live. If about the same 

 as my own, which is 42° north, the 

 ideas offered in your last sentence 

 are about right. In many seasons 

 I should prefer to feed as earlj^ as 

 September. 



2. 1 use a top feeder which cov- 

 ers the entire top of hive making 

 a complete story of itself. It holds 

 nearly twenty pounds of syrup or 

 honey and can be refilled without 

 the use of smoke or coming in con- 

 tact with the bees of the hive and 

 be closed so quickly that robbers 

 cannot get a taste. It is so con- 

 structed as to be almost odor- 

 proof, cannot leak outside the hive 

 nor can the bees become daubed 

 while taking the feed. I consider 

 the feeder nearly perfection ; many 

 of your readers have no doubt 

 seen cut and description in my 

 circular or book. 



