64 



THE PRACTICAL BEE GUIDE. 



CHAPTER XI. 

 APPLIANCES FOR FEEDING BEES. 



119. Feeding. — Bees require to be fed when their stores run 

 short ; and at other times, also, it is found to be profitable to 

 supply artificial food (311). For this purpose, it is necessary 

 to liave feeders which will supply the food in the proper quan- 

 tities, and in the proper position, so that the bees may use 

 it for the purpose intended, and may have convenient access 

 to it, without the danger of setting up robbing (307) by attract- 

 ing stranger bees to the sweets supplied. 



120. The "Economic" Feeder 



(Fig. 46) is an ordinary syrup tin, 

 with a lever-top lid in which holes 

 are punched. It is inverted upon 

 the frames direct, or upon a 

 single stage of 5" wood through 

 which a hole has been cut to give 

 access to the bees. When the 

 feeder is being removed, a corner 

 of the carbolic cloth (127), or a 

 separator (102), may be slipped 

 under it to keep the bees down. 



121. The Bottle and Stage 

 Feeder (Fig. 47) can be put to- 

 gether at a trifling evpense. It 

 consists of a wide-mouthed bottle, 

 or jar, with a piece of coarse 

 calico tied over the mouth ; two 

 squares of V wood ; and a piece 

 of perforated zinc. The squares 

 of wood are placed evenly one 

 upon the other, and a hole is cut 

 through them sufficiently large to 

 admit the mouth of the bottle. 

 The perforated zinc is inserted 

 between the squares, which are 

 then nailed together. This stage 

 is placed upon the tops of the 

 frames, and the zinc prevents 



the bees from escaping upwards, but permits them to reach 

 the syrup when the bottle is inverted upon the stage. 



Fig. 46. 

 ECONOMIC FEEDER. 



Fig. 47. 

 BOTTLE AND STAGE FEEDER. 



