May 16, 1907 



411 



-Ms^^^^ 



American Bae Journal]^pf%; 





No. 



5— Feeding and Feeders 

 —Top Feeders 



BY C. P. DADANT 



This is the most common method of 

 feeding. Probably the most exten- 

 sively used top feeder is the Miller 

 feeder, devised by Dr. C. C. Miller, and 

 described by him in " Forty Years 

 Among the Bees." The manufacturers 

 make the Miller feeder a little differ- 

 ent from the original used by the in- 

 ventor. The Miller feeder is all in one, 

 and the bees have access to the feed 

 from both sides, while the copy is made 

 in two parts, with the ascent to these 

 in the middle, right over the brood. At 

 first sight it looks as if this were the 

 better way, since the ascent is where 

 the bees can reach it from the center 

 of the brood-nest, and better guard it 

 against robber-bees ; but Dr. Miller 

 does not agree to this, and says : 



" I thought il was an important inaprove- 

 ment to allow the bees to go up the middle 

 instead of up the sides, because the heat 

 ought to be greater at the middle. After a 

 thorough trial of the two, side by side, I am 

 obliged to admit that the improvement is one 

 in theory only, and that the bees go up the 

 sides whenever they will go up the middle, 

 and it seems a little better to have to feed all 

 in one dish." 



Feeding granulated honey over a 

 piece of paper on top of the frames, at 

 the back of the brood nest, is quite 

 practical because the quilt may be 

 allowed to drop back on this food, and 

 close the top as soon as the food is re- 

 moved. But for stimulative feeding 

 granulated honey is probably not so 

 good as liquid warm food, because it is 

 very thick and will force the bees to go 

 in search of water. Honey in extract- 

 ing-super combs may be fed to the 

 bees when the colony is powerful, but 

 will not do for a weak colony because 

 it leaves the upper story open and 

 causes loss of heat. 



A very cheap and convenient feeder 

 which brings the food right over the 

 cluster is made of a fruit-can with a 

 cloth tied over the mouth of it and in- 

 verted over the combs. The can must 

 first be inverted over a dish or a pan, 

 with two small cleats under it, to let 

 the first flow of liquid come. It is kept 

 in that position till laid over the 

 frames. At first the honey comes very 

 freely, but when the atmospheric pres- 

 sure acts the liquid stops running 

 through the cloth and is taken by the 

 bees only as fast as needed. The pep- 

 per-box and Hill feeders are similar, 

 only they have a perforated-tin cover 

 which allows the feed to come through. 

 But the ordinary tin-can feeder, made 

 of any round tin can which has been 

 emptied of its contents, is fully as 



good as these, because when the bees 

 have emptied it they will gnaw through 

 the cloth and get the very last drop of 

 liquid. It is, however, quite a little 

 more trouble to prepare it for use. 

 Cloth must be used which is thick 

 enough not to let the air pass through, 

 as otherwise the food would continue 

 to leak through after inverting and 

 would waste. The bees must be able 

 to take care of it or the feeder is a nui- 

 sance. The greatest objection to the 

 inverted tin can as a feeder is that it 

 allows the heat to escape in the cover 

 unless a honey-board is used in con- 

 nection with it. 



As honey-boards are used by us only 

 with bee-escapes when we wish to re- 

 move the supers, and as we use the 

 cloth and mat only, at all other times 

 we have devised a honey-board to serve 

 alternately with the bee-escape or with 

 the feeders. This does away with the 



enough to interrupt the taking of the 

 food by the bees. The other, the rusty 

 cans must be carefully avoided. 



The ordinary quart can which is now 

 so plentifully used for all kinds of 

 preserves and canned vegetables, and 

 which is usually thrown away after 

 being emptied, need never be used 

 more than once for feeding the bees. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Lyman Method of Swarm- 

 Control 



BY W. C. I.YMAN 



How to get the best results from my 

 bees in a rather poor location ; how to 

 control swarming, and to run for comb 

 honey as easily as for extracted ; how 

 to keep the colonies strong, and at the 

 same time contented; and to be able 

 to do this in an out-yard as well as at 

 home ; how to do it all with only a lit- 

 tle labor, comparatively! and without 

 cutting or changing my hives in any 

 way, and without many extra fixtures — 

 to develop a system that would apply 

 to any standard hive, has been a pretty 

 large problem over which I have stud- 

 ied a good deal, and have tried in a 

 number of ways to solve. 



Also, I have made some progress, 

 and with the help of the photographs 

 which I have taken of the hive-parts 



Bee-Escape Board Used for Feeding Bees. 



necessity of having two sets of honey- 

 boards in the apiary. When the feeder 

 is used the round plug carrying the es- 

 cape is temporarily removed. 



In the use of tin feeders care must be 

 taken that they be not allowed to rust. 

 During the fall of 1906, one of our men 

 used a lot of feeders that were rusty 

 inside. The feeding was done late, 

 about the last of October, and a num- 

 ber of colonies fed for winter left a 

 portion of the food in the feeder for 2 

 or 3 weeks before it was stored in the 

 combs. The result was a darkened 

 syrup instead of the clear food which 

 ought to have carried them through in 

 good health, and a number of the colo- 

 nies—perhaps every one of those which 

 were fed out of rusty feeders — were 

 killed by diarrhea. 



Two expeusive lessons were thus 

 secured: First, that it is advisable to 

 feed before the weather becomes cold 



and fixtures which I am now using, I 

 will try to make plain my method. 



Fig. 1 shows two bottom-boards, of 

 the kind I use and prefer, placed as 

 shown — front end to front end, and the 

 %-inch bee-space-side up on a stand 

 from which I have just removed the 

 colony which I wish to manipulate. 

 When to do this work must be left to 

 the judgment of the bee-keeper, but I 

 usually do it about the time when a 

 shaken swarm should be made to pre- 

 vent swarming. 



Fig. 2 shows a false bottom made of 

 galvanized iron, leaning against, or 

 held up by, a short piece of board, and 

 these two articles are all that are re- 

 quired in my plan for the manipulation 

 of a colony. The false bottom, as I 

 use it for the 8-frame hive, is made by 

 cutting a sheet of galvanized iron to 

 measure, 21 inches long by 12 inches 

 wide, and nailing to it on the underside 



