1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



837 



slow yield I can obtain as much or more comb 

 than extracted. Such years as this the comb 

 brings 10 cts. and the extracted 5 cts. per lb. 

 Using full-depth story below, all the harvest, 

 would give more extracted; but with shallow 

 contracted brood-nest it gave more in combs. 

 In fact, full story below, all through the pres- 

 ent season, gave very little surplus of any kind. 

 This was proven in my own apiary and neigh- 

 bors*. 

 Florence, Cal. 



FEEDING AT DR. MILLER'S. 



HOW THE .JOB WAS SIMPLIFIED. 



By Emma WiJmn. 



Usually I have dreaded the time to come 

 when I knew we should have to feed our bees. 

 Nearly every thing about the house would be 

 sticky, doorknobs included, to say nothing 

 about the amount of work involved. But this 

 year it has just been fun — not one bit of muss 

 about the house. I have thought so many 

 times, while we were feeding this year, "Oh 

 how much extra work we have made for our- 

 selves in former years, all for not knowing 

 howl" Then I wondered if we were doing as 

 much hard work in other directions just be- 

 cause we did not know how, and if that were 

 the reason that bee-keeping was such hard 

 work. 



I'm going to tell just what we did this year. 

 About the first of September we visited each 

 apiary, and weighed each hive to find out just 

 how much feed each colony would need for 

 winter. .Just the hive and contents with cover 

 were weighed, without the bottom-board. Un- 

 der the record of each hive in the record-book 

 the weight was put down. These weights 

 varied from '2i\ to 6'3 pounds. Some colonies had 

 more than one story, but only the weight of 

 the upper story was taken. 



If a colony weighed 47 lbs., it passed muster 

 without feeding; but if it weighed less than 47 

 lbs., it was given sugar enough so that, when 

 the sugar was brought to the consistency of 

 honey, the total weight was brought to .50 lbs., 

 figuring on the basis that .) lbs. of sugar make 

 7 lbs. of syrup of the consistency of honey. 

 That is, 5 lbs. of sugar were given for every 7 

 lbs. the colony lacked of weighing .50 lbs. For 

 example, a colony that weighed 3(5 lbs. had 10 

 lbs. of sugar given it. 



We next brought out our Miller feeders, and 

 stuffed the opening where the feed goes 

 through (which in the original Miller feeder is }4 

 inch or more), wiih cotton cloth. Old pieces of 

 cotton flannel and part of an old bed-spread 



were what we happened to have handy to use 

 for the purpose; and, when propiu'ly packed, 

 they worked tip-top. I was the one who did 

 the packing; and, when the most of them were 

 packed. Dr. Miller thought I was packing them 

 too tight. So I packed the rest much looser. 



We fed the Hastings apiary first. We took 

 along ;24 feeders and 3 bags of sugar weighing 

 100 lbs. each. We also took along a tin pail 

 holding 11 lbs. of sugar, another holding 4 lbs., 

 a can holding 3 lbs., and another holding 1 lb. 

 With these we could quickly measure the 

 right quantity of sugar for each colony. 



The first thing after reaching the apiary, we 

 put on the feeders, leaving the covers off; and 

 into each feeder the proper amount of dry 

 sugar was put, the feeders being still left un- 

 covered. After all the feeders were supplied 

 with sugar, we poured 'On a pint of water to 

 each pound of sugar, put the covers on, and 

 came home. 



The ones that were packed first were all 

 right, with the exception of one or two which, 

 after being used for a while, swelled so that 

 the syrup would not pass through. The second 

 lot — those that were not packed so tightly — let 

 the water through too fast, and left dry sugar, 

 and more water had to be added two or three 

 times, so that some of them had two or three 

 pints of water for every pound of sugar. 



We fed in all about 1.500 lbs. of sugar; and I 

 can hardly realize that we have fed it, it has 

 been so easily done. Just try it for yourselves, 

 and see how nicely it works. 



Marengo, 111. 



[Yes, indeed, the new way of feeding is a 

 great convenience as well as a great saving of 

 labor; but we could not make the Miller feed- 

 ers work nearly as well as the inverted crocks. 

 The trouble was, we could not get the cloth 

 stuffed just right every time. — Ed.] 



THE RIDDANCE OF BURR AND BRACE COMBS. 



SEVEN-EIGHTHS THICKNESS OF TOP-BAK AN 



ITNNECESSARY EXTREME; PUTTING 



IN FOUNDATION. 



By A. B. AnthiDiy. 



I sent you by freight a machine for putting 

 foundation into brood and extracting frames. 

 To use, it takes three lamps to heat the plate, 

 and the back feet should press against the wall 

 to keep the machine from sliding away when 

 pushing the foot lever. 



Yourself and Dr. Miller have quite a good 

 deal to say in Aug. 1st Gleanings about top- 

 bars, and the way to fasten foundation to them. 

 The only true way to fasten foundation to either 

 sections or frames is on the melted-wax plan. 



