3o8 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



where to find honey, and, when a forager 

 came in with a load, they all started for 

 the cans. It was just the same when 

 feeding syrup with the fruit jars and 

 grooved boards. As soon as the cans 

 were filled up, and a few bees had found 

 the syrup and gone home with a load, 

 there would be a perfect swarm around 

 the feeders, but I could go on and open 

 nuclei with very little annoyance. My 

 feeding of syrup in this manner was to 

 start young queens to laying in nuclei 

 during a honey dearth. It accomplished 

 its object, but I found that I was feeding 

 a lot of full colonies ten times the 

 amount that went into the nuclei, and 

 stimulating breeding at a place where I 

 did not care for it at that season, so I 

 dropped this plan, and made some little 

 boxes, and filled them nearly full of sug- 

 ar candy, then inverted one over each 

 nucleus having a queen nearly old enough 

 to lay. This accomplished the purpose 

 at one-tenth the expense. Perhaps some 

 one might object to open air feeding on 

 the ground that the colonies that needed 

 it most would secure the least honey. If 

 you are feeding bees that are short of 

 stores for winter, then out door feeding 

 is not the thing. In this case I would 

 feed each colony separate. In this way 

 the correct amount can be given to each 

 colony. Awhile ago I said that for the 

 purposes of stimulation I saw no objec- 

 tion to open air feeding. In this case 

 the weak colony would bring in only a 

 little, and could care for only a little ad- 

 ditional brood. The populous colony can 

 bring large quantities of feed, and can 

 care for large quantities of brood. Feed- 

 ing in the open air has an effect that is 

 very similar to a natural honey flow. In 

 all of this I have seen no trouble from 

 robbers. Too many have gotten a wrong 

 impression of the matter from improper 

 management. A bee-keeper goes out in- 

 to his apiary and finds the bees robbing 

 some colony. The first thing he does is 

 to close the entrance or carry the hive in- 

 to the cellar. All the bees that have been 

 at work upon this colony are disappoint- 



ed in finding it gone. They are enraged. 

 They are like a tiger robbed of its prey. 

 They attack the nearest colonies; then 

 others. Every colony in the yard is tried. 

 Woe unto a weak or queenless colony. 

 Sometimes it is woe unto chickens, dogs 

 and children. Had that hive been left 

 and the bees allowed to "clean it out," 

 they would have been kept busy grubbing 

 and digging away at it long after the 

 honey was gone. They would have 

 found out gradually that there was no 

 more honey to be gotten. I would not 

 for the world give advice that would be 

 likel}' to get bee-keepers into trouble. I 

 know that bees are sometimes aroused by 

 the exposure of honey — just after the 

 close of basswood bloom for instance — 

 and with terrible results, but I also know 

 from repeated trials, year after j'ear, that 

 bees can be fed in the open air with no 

 disastrous results whatever. 



Harry Howe has an article in Glean- 

 ings, written since he went to Cuba, and 

 he says he has never seen robbers thicker 

 or more aggressive than . he found them 

 there, yet a walk through the fields will 

 show a share of the black, shiny bees 

 that many call "professional robbers." 

 Going on, Mr. Howe says that one day 

 the bees will follow'one around the yard 

 by the hundred, pitching into every hive 

 that is opened; in a day or two, basswood 

 is out, or some other source of honey 

 opens up, and where are the robbers ? 

 Honey may be left exposed in the yard, 

 and not a bee will look at it. 



EXTRACTED. 



ORIGIN' OF HONEY UEW. 



Prof. Cook says there is no Doubt of its In- 

 sect Origin. 



Some months ago, in the Review, Mr. 

 McKnight of Canada, opposed the idea 

 that honey dew is of insect origin. In 



