AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



535 



allowing them to run awhile, guide 

 them near each other, and the bees will 

 feed the queen, when the work can be 

 easily done. 



I have since found out a more expedi- 

 tious way, viz. : While the queen is 

 passing from the cage to the window, 

 let her back her wing gently, brush a 

 drop of honey on the end of the finger, 

 and she will soon stop to clean it off. 



To clip her so she will not fly after- 

 wards, I always cut off the large wing 

 on only one side, just deep enough to 

 take the tip of the small one in the same 

 clip — she never flies again. It wounds 

 her but little, as I give a slanting cut, 

 taking more of the lace than of the 

 fleshy part. Set the cage over her as 

 before, carry her to the hive at once, 

 and let her run down among the combs 

 at once ; not in at the entrance. 



If all the mum old bee-keepers have 

 known all about this, all these years of 

 progressive bee-culture, and not told it, 

 I will make it known through the old 

 reliable American Bee Journal, as it 

 may help some beginner out, as well as 

 the more advanced. 



Sang Run, Md. 



Feeders for Feeding Dry Sugar 

 to Bees Described. 



Written lor the American Bee Journal 

 BY " MALTA." 



There are a great many patterns of 

 dry-sugar feeders made and sold by 

 English firms, and I think a description 

 of one is to be found in Simmins' book. 



Mr. Anderson (see page 246) must 

 have misunderstood my article. I only 

 advocate dry sugar as a useful means of 

 tiding over a bad time, not for supplying 

 winter stores. My plan was as follows : 



Instead of the ordinary solid dummy 

 or division-board, I made a hollow one 

 about 2 inches through, divided horizon- 

 tally across the middle — the back was 

 entirely closed ; the front was partially 

 so, by means of two smaller boards 

 hingeing on their lower edges, and not 

 quite reaching to the top of their re- 

 spective partitions, leaving an opening 

 through which the bees had access to 

 the sugar placed inside. 



At first I used an ordinary frame, 

 without central partition, and the front 

 fixed, but found that the sugar caked, 

 and it was not easy to clean out, so I 

 adopted the divided and hinged pattern 

 in lieu of the narrow, deep frame, and 

 could then stir up and freshen up the 



feed in a few seconds. I append a rough 

 sketch in which the upper partition is 

 closed as for use, and the lower open for 

 cleaning — it is not drawn to scale. 



Should it be impossible, on account of 

 make of hives, to use a feeding dummy 

 of this sort, an ordinary float-feeder 

 with the float removed can be used for 

 sugar on top of the frames. Messrs. 

 Neighbour, of London, make a feeder 

 called the "Buncefield Easternware 

 Sugar Feeder," in which the sugar gets 

 wetted by water oozing through a por- 

 ous division in just such quantities as 

 the bees require, and so saves the dirty 

 and troublesome job of handling syrup. 



A friend of mine, who is a queen- 

 rearer, always uses dry-sugar feeders in 



Wide-Frame Bee-Feeder. 



his nuclei, much of the pattern I have 

 described, and I believe that in storify- 

 ing, if the bees don't care to build out 

 the combs up-stairs, a feeder of this sort 

 will often induce them to do so in its 

 vicinity. 



One caution — ware wasps — those pests 

 will find and go for dry sugar like mad 

 things, even passing honey by for it. 



Panama. 



Uninspired Apiarian Prophecies 

 for the State of Iowa. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY THOS. JOHNSON. 



On page 406, the Tennessee honey 

 prophet writes that the east part of this 

 State would have a better honey-flow 

 than the west. Mr. Wilson wrote me a 

 personal letter some time in July, which 

 I answered July 18th, jn the Bee Jour- 

 nal. This letter he takes exceptions 

 to. Does he not know that the western 

 part of Iowa, on an average, has more 

 than double the flow of honey that the 

 eastern part has ? 



