424 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



lbs. I did do that, friend Wood, and just as 

 it comes from the can, and presumably as it 

 came from your people on the Pacific slope; 

 but I find it weighs 12 lbs. to the gallon. I 

 thought it would go nearly 13; but even at 

 the 12-pound mark it is very nice and thick. 

 I could get it to the lo-pound mark by letting 

 it stand in an open vessel for days at a time. 



Why, friend Wood, we in Ohio consider 11 

 lbs. a fair specific gravity; and in our climate 

 I doubt whether it is possible to ripen it in the 

 hive so it will be thicker than this. We can 

 run it up to 12 lbs., and perhaps 1.3, by letting 

 it stand in a dry place in an open vessel. 

 During the last three or four weeks we have 

 been having a spell of weather during which 

 the honey would get thijiner rather than thick- 

 er. Nearly every thing has been reeking 

 with dampness from frequent rains, fogs, etc. 

 This condition does not generally prevail; but 

 our atmosphere is by no means as dry as it is 

 in California, and I doubt whether it is possi- 

 ble for us to raise the specific gravity of honey 

 much above the 11 -pound mark. 



In speaking of California honey, I never 

 saw any thing yet that came from cans that 

 was thicker than 12 lbs. to the gallon. I am 

 not saying that 5'ou West Coasters can not or 

 do not produce 13 pound honey; but I am one 

 of those chaps who are very fond of thick 

 waxy hone}'; and if you have something that 

 runs 13 and 14 lbs., I wish you would send me 

 a sample. I will pay express, and give it the 

 best write-up I know how. — Ec] 



FEEDERS. 

 Entrance Feeders for Spring Feeding. 



BY F. BOOMHOWER. 



It is out of season for the use of feeders 

 now, as bees in this latitude are all packed 

 fot winter, and, of course, tliey were provided 

 with sufficient stores for winter ; but when 

 work does not need doing is the time to think 

 and prepare for the time when it does need 

 doing ; and when spring comes, and when 

 feeding is needed, we shall be ready for it. 



vSuccess in feeding depends mostly on the 

 feeder used. Of course, if we save over sealed 

 combs of honey a feeder is of no consequence, 

 as it is a very easy matter to lift out the empty 

 combs from the needy colonies and replace 

 them with full combs of honey ; but when we 

 have not the combs of honey, and feeding is 

 necessary, a feeder of some kind will be 

 needed. 



I do not think that feeding done by combs 

 is as good as entrance feeding, for stimulating 

 or inducing the queen to lay ; for if the bees 

 have to carry it from the entrance it seems 

 more natural, and has more of a tendency to 

 set the queen to laying more rapidly. I think 

 a large per cent of the feeding done results in 

 nearly as much injury as good. 



I know a bee-keeper, and one who thinks he 

 is a practical one too, and I have seen him 

 ff ed colonies of bees by pouring as much as a 

 quart of extracted honey on top of the brood- 

 frames, and allowing it to run down over the 



cluster of bees, besmearing them all over ; and 

 I have known of instances where the bees 

 have left the hive, and clustered under the 

 bottom-board until the honey had been drain- 

 ed out and cleaned up by the bees. Now, if 

 practical bee-keepers will do such work I 

 should like to know what you call an unprac- 

 tical one. 



Feeders must be so constructed that the 

 bees can ' not possibly get daubed with the 

 feed. I once thought that was easy to accom- 

 plish, but it was not so easy as I thought. 



The most common kind of feeders are those 

 with slats and floats. Take any of this kind 

 Df feeders, and even combs filled with feed, 

 and watch the bees as they all hurry to get a 

 share. At first, when only a few are feeding, 

 they take their time and sip leisurely, as if 

 they had lots of time and room. Soon they 

 gather faster ; the number increases, and they 

 commence to scramble and tumble over each 

 other, falling into the feed, and getting daub- 

 ed and smeared. Those at the bottom, which 

 were there first, get pressed and crushed down 

 into the feed ; and as each bee makes its es- 

 cape up through the mass it wipes its wings, 

 feet, and body off upon its companions' fine 

 clothes, and this process is kept up until the 

 whole mass becomes smeared and daubed up 

 with the disagreeable sticky feed. 



I will explain a feeder that I believe to be 

 the best adapted for this kind of feeding. It 

 allows the syrup to be fed a little at a time ; 

 and when the feeders are empty they can be 

 seen at a glance without looking into the hive 

 and disturbing the bees. In an apiary of 100 

 colonies you can tell what feeders are empty, 

 or the amount they contain, in almost a min- 

 ute's time, just by glancing down the rows 

 and walking across one end of the apiary. 



For spring feeding, an entrance feeder is al- 

 together the best. A Mason fruit-jar holding 

 two quarts, with a tin screw top, and by per- 

 forating the top with small holes made with an 

 awl ; a thin box about I'i inches deep and h 

 inches square, with one end open, with a tin 

 bottom, and projecting strips at the open end 

 to project into the entrance ; a wooden top 

 with a circular hole cut in large enough to 

 permit the top of the jar to just fit in ; the 

 projecting strips made to fit snugly in the en- 

 trance, will hold the feeder in place. No rob- 

 ber bees can get at the feed without going into 

 the hive to get it. 



I th.nk Mr. Boardman is the originator of 

 this feeder, or one something like it, and it is 

 old, but it is a good one, and worthy of being 

 described again. 



I'^or feed, many u.se an equal proportion of 

 granulated sugar and water, the sugar being 

 made to dissolve by rapid stirring ; but when 

 we can get extracted honey as cheap as sugar, 

 1 think it more profitable to use the later or 

 extracted honey. Some may think it unnec- 

 essary and unprofitable to feed when they al- 

 ready have honey ( I mean in the latter part of 

 the spring ) ; but by feeding at the proper time 

 it stimulates them and sets the queen to lay- 

 ing more vigorously, and that means a lot of 

 bees, and a lot of bees means a lot of honey 

 when the flow conies, and certainlv we should 



