1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



805 



15 lbs. of water brought to a boil; 30 lbs. of gran- 

 ulated sugar stirred in, and the whole again 

 brought to a boil, after which set from the tire and 

 stir in 5 lbs. of honey. This makes .50 lbs. of the 

 best bee-feed which 1 know of. The honey pre- 

 vents granulation. G. M. Doolittle. 



I have always boiled it. It might do as well with- 

 out the boiling, but it would certainly be slower; 

 and, besides, 1 want to feed it hot. The acid cer- 

 tainly makes a difference, as I have, I think, prov- 

 en; but I have had some granulate slightly, after 

 adding acid. C. C. Miller. 



About seventeen years since, while living at Ca- 

 diz, O., I fed 31 bbls. of sugar in the fall. In a little 

 of this I used tartaric acid, and a little of it I boiled; 

 but then there was so near no granulating in all 

 this amount that I would not think of doing more 

 than melting it well with boiling water. 



R. Wilkin. 



It will be seen by the above, that most of 

 the friends either prefer or find it more con- 

 venient to make syrup by boiling. At times 

 certain samples of sugar granulate so as to 

 rattle out of the cells, and fall to the bottom 

 of the hive, to be carried out by the bees as 

 useless rubbish ; but this has so seldom hap- 

 pened in our experience that I do not be- 

 lieve I would take the trouble to boil it or 

 to add any kind of acid. I very much pre- 

 fer the plan given us by Doolittle, of pre- 

 venting the granulation by the addition of a 

 small quantity of honey— that is, where we 

 can have perfect assurance that this honey 

 can not by any possible chance endanger 

 giving us foul brood. 



Question No. 8i.— Mention by name the feeder you 

 prefer. 



The Boardman feeder. 

 Heddon's Excelsior. 



H. R. Boardman. 

 James A. Green. 



Our feeder is a simple form of the Heddon feeder, 

 and holds a dozen or more pounds. 



P. H. Elwood. 

 The Langstroth. The wooden butter-dish is also 

 a good, cheap, and 8imi>le feeder. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 

 We use and prefer E. France's feeder, the same 

 as shown in A. I. Root's price list as the pepper-box 

 feeder. E. Eranoe. 



I very seldom use any feeders; but if I had to 

 use any I would give the preference to J. M. 

 Shuck's. Paul L. Viallon. 



Of the few feeders that I have lying around, used 

 on very rare occasions, it would not be fair to say 

 that I prefer any kind. E. E. Hasty. 



A fruit-jar with perforated tin cover and a tin 

 strip soldered around it, half an inch wide, to afford 

 room for bees to cluster under, inverted over a 

 hole above the cluster. Chas. F. Muth. 



I prefer to feed by raising the front end of the 

 hive and pouring in at the entrance just at night. 

 If I were to use a feeder, aud at the entrance, 1 

 should prefer the one made by H. D. Cutting, Clin- 

 ton, Mich. If to be used on top, and for large 

 quantity, I would use the Heddon. 



Dr. a. B. Mason. 



The one that somebody at Medina changed be- 

 yond recognition. They've improved the feeder 

 but spoiled my glory. C. C. Miller. 



I will answer this question by a short article. 

 It is the most perfect feeder I have any knowledge 

 of; at least, after many changes and improvements 

 it gives us perfect satisfaction. James Heddon. 



I think the feeder I use is called the pepper-box 

 feeder. It is the size of a peach-can, with perforat- 

 ed tin, and a can-screw on the bottom, encircled by 

 a rim of tin. It is placed over a hole in the honey- 

 board. Geo. Grimm. 



The White feeder, wrongly called the Smith feed- 

 er, in my book. I think it is perfection. It can be 

 made of any size, is cheap, right over the cluster, 

 and very convenient. After using it for years I 

 have no criticism to offer. A. J. Cook. 



We use an inverted tin can with a cloth tied over 

 the mouth. This feeder can not be refilled without 

 moving it; but it places the food right next to the 

 cluster, and the food is taken, even in cold weather. 

 Other feeders will do better for spring feeding. 



Dadant & Son. 



A division-board feeder, made by nailing a thin 

 board on both sides of a frame, they coming within 

 '/4 inch of the top. Make all so it will not leak, and 

 you have the best feeder in the world. If you wish 

 to feed fast, use several feeders; if slow, fill only to 

 the amount required. G. M. Doolittle. 



The name of the feeder that I prefer is a single- 

 walled 8-frame, closed-bottomed portico Langstroth 

 bee-hive. For an engraving I refer you to "Lang- 

 stroth on the Honey-bee," a copy of which I obtain- 

 ed about 30 years ago when I first went into bee- 

 business. Having purchased TZ colonies of Italian 

 bees in the above style of hive from Adam Grimm, 

 which I found made admirable feeders, if any of 

 them were not honey-tight I lifted the bees out 

 while I ran hot wax around the corners. To feed, I 

 elevated the frcint end of the hive from two to five 

 inches, and poured the feed in at the entrance. If 

 some bees were smeared they easily crawled up on 

 the combs, where others cleaned them off; besides, 

 the bees could reach the honey nicely from the 

 combs. In the absence of a portico hive I have 

 sometimes shoved the combs a little apart at one 

 end, and poured the feed in from the top. I have with 

 good satisfaction fed very strong colonies profuse- 

 ]y, even if already rich, and let them store away 

 and seal over the empty combs from other hives, 

 thus making a few colonies that were able to take 

 care of themselves act as feeders for the weak. 

 The sealed honey can be distributed at leisure. 

 This I count an excellent way to store up surplus 

 food in the fall. R. Wilkin. 



While it is quite likely that no one feeder 

 will ever please all the bee-friends, or even 

 a majority of them, I think the above testi- 

 mony points pretty strongly to what Dr, 

 Miller alludes to, figured in Our Own Apiary 

 elsewhere, or the plan advocated by Dr. Ma- 

 son and R. Wilkin ; namely, making the 

 hives sufficiently tight to pour the feed on 

 the bottom-board while the front end is ele- 

 vated a. little. We have used at different 

 times a shallow tin pan, to be set inside of 

 the hives. Feed enough may be poured 

 into this to come up to the bottom-bars of 

 the frames, and no bees will get drowned. 



