1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



'.»()3 



:neither works except in windy weather, just 

 when you don't want it. 



I now leave plenty of cracks in the outside 

 door, and a few inches of space open, under the 

 inside door; cover tiiis hole with straw, to 

 break the current; and should there be a long 

 spell of cold windy weather, an extra bunch of 

 straw stuffed between the two doors will pre- 

 vent the escape of heat. The timbers, after 

 being in use ten years in those caves, look like 

 new— not a sign of mold on them. 



I find that not more than a half of the space 

 should be occupied by the hives in a repository 

 that has no means for the escape of heat, for 

 the bees will heat up a room surprisingly. 



Savanna, 111. 



-^ — • — ^ 



THOSE PERCOLATOR FEEDERS. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF THEIR VPORKING FULLY 

 EXPLAINED. 



By Dr. C. C. Miller. 



Sitting on a load of bees, on the way home 

 from the Hastings apiary, I said to my assist- 

 ant. "Suppose a vessel filled with sugar and 

 water, with a hole at the bottom so small that 

 a grain of sugar could not get through, would 

 that act the same as one of our percolating 

 feeders'?" 



She answered. "'If there were a sufficient 

 number of small holes it might; but with a sin- 

 gle hole it couldn't get through fast enough." 



*' But," I said, " suppose the hole large enough 

 so that the syrup came through just as fast as 

 it comes through a percolating feeder. Would 

 the syrup be just the same?'" 



She promptly said it would not; and when I 



• came to get the matter formulated in words, I 

 found she held the opinion that something in 

 the line of filtration was necessary, and that 

 the liquid must find its way by a somewhat 

 devious passage through the meshes of a cloth 



•or a mass of cotton. The same idea had been 

 in my mind, and I think it quite likely that 

 you, Mr. Editor, had the satne thing in mind 

 when you were in search of that colored indi- 

 vidual in the fence. And when you struck 

 upon old flannel instead of new, you felt sure 

 you had found " the nigger." 



Let me tell you about some experiments I 

 have been making. Although made in the 

 main too late in the season to feed bees, no 

 actual feeding was necessary, for the removal 

 of the syrup by the bees has nothing to do with 

 the points I was after. 



I look a baking-powdi'r can, holding about a 

 pint, and made a small hole in the bottom, of 

 such size that cold water would pass through 



• at the rate of about 7 drops per minute. Hot 

 water would pass through much more rapidly. 

 I put sugar and water, equal parts, in the can. 

 A few drops came tlirough very slowly, then it 



-stopped altogether. A grain of sugar may have 

 :stopped the hole. I tried holes of larger size. 



but it seemed that any hole so small that it 

 would not allow a grain of sugar to pass through 

 was small (enough to be entirely stopped by one 

 of the grains. 



Then I drove through the hole a two-inch 

 wire nail. Of course, this would let grains of 

 sugar through. To prevent that I covered the 

 hole with a single thickness of thin cotton cloth 

 that was new. Putting in equal quantities of 

 sugar and water, it came through all right in 

 good time. With twice as much sugar as 

 water it made, of course, heavier syrup, but it 

 took four or five days to get through. But I 

 found that, the longer it was used, the slower it 

 went through, perhaps from the fulling of the 

 cloth. Very fine wire cloth, such as is used in 

 milk-strainers, might be more uniform in action. 

 Possibly, however, it may be that there is some 

 other trouble. 



Two months ago or more I put an equal 

 quantity of sugar and water in a tumbler, and 

 let it stand. In the course of a few days the 

 water on top was a weak syrup, and the amount 

 of sugar in the tumbler was perceptibly less, 

 but after that time the change was slow; and 

 the longer it stood, the slower the sugar seemed 

 to dissolve. At this writing there is half an 

 inch or so of sugar in the bottom of the tum- 

 bler, and a tolerably thick syrup over it. This 

 shows that time is an important element in dis- 

 solving the sugar. 



Now I'll tell you the conclusions at which I 

 have arrived, although I don't feel that there 

 is no possibility of mistake. When sugar and 

 water are put together, there is a slow mixing; 

 and in a little time the crevices between the 

 grains of sugar are filled with a solution of 

 sugar. Allowed to stand in that way, the 

 water above is prevented from mixing with the 

 sugar — at least, it does so very slowly, the up- 

 per part of the sugar gradually combining with 

 the water above it. That was plainly shown 

 in the last experiment mentioned, wherejt took 

 weeks to dissolve the sugar. 



Suppose, however, that, by some means, we 

 remove all the syrup that fills the crevices be- 

 tween the grains of sugar. Water will come 

 down afresh to fill the crevices, and in its turn 

 will dissolve a fresh portion of the sugar. Now, 

 that's exactly the principle we work upon in all 

 of our percolating. We allow the syrup to pass 

 out from below, through some sort of sieve 

 that will allow only syrup and no grains to 

 pass, and we manage so that it shall go through 

 so slowly that the sugar at the bottom will 

 have time to dissolve before the syrup passes 

 through. I think that's all there is to it, and it 

 isn't a question of cotton or wool, old cloth or 

 new cloth. Old fiannel isn't a whit better than 

 new flannel, providing the space of new flannel 

 is enough less so that the syrup goes as fast 

 through one as the other. The only point is, to 

 have your feeder or your crock emptied in the 

 same space of time. 



