THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



213 



My methods may not be adapted to all 

 localities aud conditions, but as they 

 seem to fit my environments I will give 

 them for what they are worth.] 



1. Ill my locality I get usually 

 quite a flow of fall honey from 

 golden rod and wild asters, and it 

 is apt to come all in a bunch about 

 the last ten days of September. 

 Therefore I do not begin to feed 

 for winter stores before the first of 

 October. If the honey harvest 

 closed in August or before, I would 

 then feed in September, which would 

 be early enough in any case. 



2. I think it best to feed as fast 

 as possible and have it all over 

 with by the middle of October. I 

 begin by selecting sa^'' a dozen of 

 the most need}^ ones and fill them 

 up first ; then transfer my feeders 

 to the next batch and so on, and 

 the last to be fed will be those that 

 need the least. Four days' time 

 ought to be long enough for a col- 

 ony to take down six or eight 

 quarts of food. 



3. I know of nothing better than 

 honey for bees to winter upon, but 

 sugar syrup answers very well in- 

 deed, and is a perfectly safe food ; 

 while hone}^, if fed in the raw state, 

 may communicate tiie much dread- 

 ed "-foul brood. " Sugar food is 

 usually much cheaper than honey 

 and I should buy it by all means 

 before I would buy honey to feed. 

 However, if one is overstocked 

 with hone}^ it may be best to feed it. 



4. Honey (known to be free 

 from the germs of foul brood) is 

 nature's own food and may be 

 mixed with sugar syrup in any 

 quantity without any harm to the 

 latter, and I shoukl not hesitate to 

 use it thus mixed. Honey from 

 fall flowers is said to be poor stufl' 

 for bees to winter upon, but my 

 bees never get anything else but 

 this to winter on (except the sugar 

 syrup when needed to supplement 

 the honey) and they generally bob 

 up serenely in spring. 



26 



5. For a feeder I use the one and 

 two-quart Mason jars inverted over 

 a hole in tlie honey board and fully 

 described in a former article. Care 

 must be used to prevent food from 

 flowing too rapidly, which it will 

 sometimes do if the jar is imperfect 

 or canted a little too much on the 

 hive from the vertical. One great 

 advantage in this style of feeder 

 is the fact that the bees will suck 

 the food down in quite cool weather 

 when they would not leave their 

 warm nest to enter a feeder from 

 the top. There are other styles of 

 feeders that work well. But I 

 think a good feeder should hold at 

 least a quart and admit of being 

 used at the top of the brood frames. 



6. I have tried feeders to be 

 used at the entrance but don't like 

 them. They are not adapted to 

 fall feeding, when we are apt to 

 have cool nights. At sucli times 

 the bees like to feed in tlie most 

 comfortable spot, which is at the 

 top of the frames. 



7. Like all animals bees require 

 more food to keep up the animal 

 heat necessary to sustain life, if 

 left with little protection from the 

 frosts of winter. Therefore it paj's 

 to give them a warm shelter. A 

 colony in a single wall jiive, out of 

 doors, ought to have thirt3q^ounds 

 of food in the hive, in October, to 

 insure them against starvation ; 

 but if properly packed in a good 

 double wall hive 20 lbs. would 

 probably answer. It will empha- 

 size the importance of winter pro- 

 tection when I state that a colony 

 protected from cold will winter on 

 twenty pounds of food, that would 

 otherwise starve to death. 



Bees wintered in a suitable cel- 

 lar would consume a minimum 

 quantity of food, but the condi- 

 tions otherwise are more complex, 

 and the tendency at present among 

 leading apiarists seems to favor 

 the plan of packing bees on their 

 summer stands. 



