1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



917 





FEED FOR BEES AND FEEDERS. 



"How has the season for honey proved 

 with you this year, Mr. Doolittle? " 



"The crop of white honey is scarcely up 

 to the average this year— probably not more 

 than fifty pounds of section honey to each 

 old colony in the spring. I do not have it all 

 off yet, but judge that fifty pounds will be 

 what I shall get. Have you yours off yet, 

 Mr. Brown?" 



' ' Yes, and it is very little indeed that I 

 have. I do not think I have more than an 

 average of 20 pounds to the hive, and what 

 I have is badly colored and mostly from mus- 

 tard. But that is not the worst of it. My 

 bees have little honey in their hives, and 

 there is very httle buckwheat sown, the 

 farmers having put out cabbage in place of 

 buckwheat, and it seems to me I shall be 

 obliged to feed mostly for winter stores. ' ' 



' ' There is scarcely any buckwheat herea- 

 bouts, but I think the bees have sufficient 

 for winter stores now, if they can only pro- 

 cure a living from now till October, which I 

 hope they may." 



"Well, if you had my prospects what 

 would vou do? " 



' ' I think I should wait till about the 10th 

 to 15th of September, and then if the bees 

 did not have sufficient stores for winter, 

 with no immediate prospects of their getting 

 such, I would feed." 



' ' Yes, and that is just what I wished to 

 talk about. How and what shall I feed? " 



' ' Have you any honey in frames hung 

 away for winter? " 



" No. If I had, the matter would be sim- 

 ple." 



" Then you will have to feed sugar." 



' ' Yes, and I wish to know how best to 

 feed it." 



' ' Some make it into candy, similar to the 

 candy used in the cages for sending queens 

 by mail." 



' ' Yes, I am told so. But is that the best 

 way?" 



' ' That will do where colonies have nearly 

 honey enough for wintering; but if greatly 

 short, I doubt the advisability of so using." 



"Well, what would you do?" 



' ' My way has been, where colonies had 

 to be fed for winter, to make a syrup as fol- 

 lows: Put 15 pounds of water into a vessel 

 that will hold from 24 to 30 quarts, placing 

 the same over the fire till it boils, when 30 

 pounds of granulated sugar is slowly stirred 

 m, so that it will dissolve instead of settling 

 to the bottom and burning. ' ' 



"Is it liable to do this without the stir- 



rmgi 



"If the fire is hot, and the 30 pounds is 



poured in all at once it is so heavy that it 

 will stick to the bottom and burn before the 

 water will get under it. After you have the 

 sugar stirred in, wait till the whole boils 

 again, when you will set it from the fire 

 and stir in 5 pounds of extracted honey. 

 This will make fifty pounds of feed fully as 

 good as honey for wintering, and some 

 claim better." 



' ' What is the extracted honey put in 

 for?" 



"To keep the syrup from crystallizing in 

 the feeders, and possibly in the combs, if 

 the colony is small to which it is fed." 



"But 1 thought that vinegar or cream of 

 tartar was used for this purpose." 



"So it is by some; but I find that the hon- 

 ey answers a better purpose, and helps along 

 with the feed just so much." 



' ' But suppose one did not have the honey. 

 What then?" 



"It might be well in that case to use the 

 vinegar, as some fear that foul brood might 

 be obtained if the honey of commerce were 

 used. But if you have been prudent you 

 will keep a little extracted honey on hand 

 to use in emergencies." 



"Well, after I have the syrup how am I 

 to feed it?" 



"At this season of the year I prefer to 

 feed it from feeders, as the bees carry it 

 where they wish it for winter, and seal it up 

 better than they do where it is poured into 

 the combs, as is a good plan in times of 

 scarcity during the fore part of the season. " 



" But suppose a person has no feeders." 



"Then the alternative is to make them or 

 use such dishes or pans as you may happen 

 to have about the house. ' ' 



"But won't the bees stick fast in the 

 feed, and be drowned, if the syrup is put in 

 such things? " 



"Yes, unless you make a float to keep 

 them from doing so." 



"How is this float made?" 



"Some use pieces of shingles, shavings, 

 corncobs, and such like, but I do not like any 

 of these, as they all soak up quite a lot of 

 the syrup. My plan has been, when using 

 such, to fill the dish with syrup, after which 

 I pull up two or three handfuls of green 

 grass and scatter over it, renewing this 

 grass every time I fill the dish. If a milk- 

 pan is used you will rarely have to fill it 

 more than twice, and generally not more 

 than once. ' ' 



' ' I see. The grass being green, and full 

 of sap, it will not allow of any soakage as 

 long as it is green." 



"That is correct; and, besides, the bees 

 can work all down and through it, so that 

 not a particle of the feed will escape them, 

 while with other floats more or less of the 

 feed will remain underneath them, as they 

 are too heavy for the bees to move." 



" But how do you get the bees to work in 

 these pans?" 



"After having the pan filled as I have 

 told you, set it on top of the hive and place 

 over it the cap of the hive, another hive, 

 surplus arrangement, or something of the 



