724 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



and it took no baiting to get the bees to come 

 up. In the super I set a saucer, poured gran- 

 ulated sugar into it, then poureji on water. 

 The bees promptly went to work at it, worked 

 out all the moisture, and left the greater part 

 as dry sugar. Of course, by pouring on more 

 water more feed would be taken; and I can 

 easily see that, for stimulative feeding, where 

 fresh feed must be given every day or every 

 other day, here was an excellent plan. Just 

 put into a super prepared as I have mentiom^d, 

 or into any box on top of the hive, a tin dish 

 containing 5 lbs. of sugar. I*our water on. but 

 not enough to have any standing on top. Next 

 day it will be m orked dry, and you will put on 

 a little more water. The less water put on. of 

 course the slower the feeding will be. You will 

 see that this stimulative feeding will be simply 

 giving a little water each day. 



I tried putting on more water at the first, so 

 as to have it wet enough for the bees to carry 

 it all down without any second filling, but I 

 failed. To have enough water on to dissolve 

 all the sugar. I left the water standing on the 

 top with so little sweet in it that the bees didn't 

 care for it, and with the chance of drowning if 

 they did work on it. Then I thought I would 

 try 



PEKCOLATING ON THE HIVE. 



First, on a small scale. I took a tumbler, 

 filled it half full or more with water, then filled 

 it up with granulated sugar. I laid over the 

 tumbler a piece of flannel large enough to com- 

 pletely cover it. and over this I turned a saucer 

 upside down. Then taking hold of the saucer 

 with one hand, and the tumbler with the other, 

 I quickly reversed the whole business. I put 

 this into the super over the hive that I have 

 already mentioned, and in about 48 hours it 

 was empty. This would also do well for stim- 

 ulating, and I'm not sure but it would be well 

 to have the tumbler two-thirds full of water 

 before filling up with sugar. No unusual ma- 

 chinery is needed; cups and saucers are always 

 on hand, and any cloth, cotton or woolen, will 

 answer. Several tumblers can be used on a 

 hive at a time, or a fruit-can or other larger 

 vessel can be used, in the case of feeding up for 

 winter. 



I tried a jelly-tumbler with a tin cover. The 

 bees couldn't get any thing out of it. Then I 

 bent the cover open a trifle at onr spot so the 

 bees could get a very little, and it took about 

 two weeks for them to empty it. So the matter 

 can be gauged for fast or slow feeding. 



Then I studied on a plan for something larg- 

 er. A percolator like the one I had been using, 

 only larger, could be arranged to operate on 

 the hive; but to have a number of these would 

 make troublesome storing, to say nothing of 

 the expense. Would a percolator work if it 

 were shallow instead of deep? Was it necessa- 

 ry to have a thickness of several inches of cot- 

 ton for the syrup to percolate through? The 



\\ orking of the tumblers seemed to show that 

 it was not; and, really, all that I could see to 

 be necessary was for the syrup to be allowed to 

 come through slowly and at the bottom. A lit- 

 tle crack in the board would be all right if 

 small enough. It must be at the bottom; for if 

 at the top, only water would come through. 



I could easily try the thing with a Miller 

 feeder. I took one of the oiiginal pattern, 

 stuffed cotton rags under the board where the 

 syrup passes through, put a mixture of hot 

 rosin and betswax in the corners so nothing 

 could get through except at the bottom, put it 

 on a hive, poured in sugar, then water, at the 

 rate of five quarts of sugar to four of water, and 

 found it " all my fancy painted it." 



Having a goodly number of Miller feeders. I 

 didn't need to get up any other feeder; but 

 with what experience I had had I felt I wanted 

 to make at least one feeder such as I would 

 now make if I had none. I made one a little 

 simpler than either the original Miller feeder 

 or the one with Wan e "'s improvement, but on 

 the same principle. The old Miller feeder had 

 two feeding pi aces for the bees, one on each 

 side; the new one has two feeding-places in 

 the middle. The percolating feeder has only 

 one feeding-place, and that is at one end. 

 This allows, by having the hive tip a trifle, a 

 full supply at the feeding-place just as long as 

 any feed is left, and I find one end gives room 

 for the bees, without crowding. 



Those who are fa- 

 miliar with the Miller 

 feeder will need no 

 further description. 

 Others may under- 

 A stand it from the dia- 

 gram showing a trans- 

 verse section of one 

 end of the feeder, the 

 only end where any 

 ^ E feeding is done. Take 



a T super, or a box that will nicely fit over the 

 hive, with a bottom '^^ inch short, leaving the 

 passageway E for the bees to get up through; 

 ?n inch from the end A of the super put in an- 

 other wall, B, extending to within f^y inch of 

 the cover H. and fitting tight at the bottom. A. 

 third wall, C, with a ^s space between it and B, 

 comes clear to the top and down to the bottom; 

 b It in putting it in, two thicUnesses of flannel 

 are put under It, or between it and the bottom. 

 G. 



When the feeder is put on the hive, the mix- 

 ture of sugar and water is put into the main, 

 compartment; it soaks through the cloth at 

 the point I) into the small compartment F, 

 where the bees get it, coming up from the hive 

 through the opening at K. 



On the very night after I had finished mak- 

 ing this feeder I had a visit from tlie junior 

 editor of Gleanings. In the morning we went 

 out and put it on a hive. I carried the sugar,. 



