332 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



THE FEEDER TO USE, AND HOW TO IVIAKE. 



The feeder that I use is made as follows: The rim is made of 

 74-inch pine and is same size outside as the brood-chamber and 

 4% inches deep. Corners are halved thus: 



? 



They are nailed both ways with thick paint in 

 joints to keep them from leaking: bottom is put 

 in same way, being left open about 1^^ inches in 

 middle. There are now two partitions extending 

 up from this opening to within yi inch of top, making two com- 

 partments for syrup. The bottom and partitions are made of 

 S'^-inch stufif. The feeder is coated on the inside with paraffin. A 

 little clean straw is put in feeder to act as floats for the bees, since 

 bees are allowed free access to the entire feeder. You can see that 

 by this method of feeding that a large force of bees gets to work 

 immediately, and the syrup, being hot, is usually taken down in one 

 night, even if the weather is quite cold. I got the idea of this 

 feeder from that able and well known bee-keeper, Mr. V\m. ]\Ic- 

 Evoy, of Woodbury, Ont. We usually take the feeders off by the 

 use of bees-escapes, as by so doing all robbing is avoided, as is the 

 case when a whole yard is fed at once, and that in the evening. 



ORDINARY FEEDERS ARE TOO SI.OW WHEN FEEDING IN A 

 WH01.ESAI.E WAY. 



I formerly used the regular ]\liller feeder, the Roardman 

 entrance feeder, the Doolittle division board feeder, and the Alex- 

 ander feeder, but found them all too slow when feeding on a large 

 scale. I still have thirty of the ^filler feeders and use them some- 

 times, but have discarded the little cover that goes with them to 

 keep bees out of the syrup, and use them same as my own make 

 by putting straw in the two compartments and giving bees free 

 access to the entire surface of the syrup. They are thus made prac- 

 tical, but do not always hold enough, as they are made small enough 

 to go inside of a regular comb honey super, while mine are made 

 the same size as super. I found that in using the Miller feeder in 

 the regular way that the syrup Avould become cold before the bees 

 could get it all taken down, and after it Avas cold they would take 

 it very slow ; but with our method there is a large feeding surface 

 and the bees get it all down before it gets cold. In 1910 we fed an 

 average of 14 pounds of sugar per colony and got an average of 

 122% pounds of choice surplus clover honey. Last year we got an 

 average of 91 pounds per colony (which we think was a big yield, 

 considering the poor season) and had to feed an average of 15 

 pounds of sugar per colony for winter stores. 



Grindstone Citv. Mich. 



