ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 31 
in use. We feed the thin syrup quite warm; and the heat and odor as 
they rise up to the cluster, even though the cluster may be only a mere 
handful of bees, will start them at once for the feed, and in a short time 
the syrup will all be taken out of the feeder and put into a nice circle 
around the brood. There is not any other one thing connected with bee- 
keeping that I have tested more thoroughly in all its different phases 
than I have spring feeding; and if any other man had invented this 
feeder and the way of using it I should not hesitate one minute in say- 
ing that it was the most practical feeder that had ever been devised, 
for it is as convenient to use in the fall to feed winter stores as it is in 
the spring to stimulate early breeding; only in the fall put two or three 
under your hive at a time, and feed thicker syrup, all they may require, 
at once or twice. They are not in the way if left under the hive all 
summer; and if we have a cold wet spell in mid-summer, as we some- 
times do, causing many colonies to destroy large quantities of their 
brood, all you have to do is to pour in a little syrup once a day while 
the bad weather lasts, and you will save their brood, and prevent them 
from becoming discouraged. And, ob how they will work when the 
flowers again commence to secrete nectar! I can truthfully say that, 
with us, spring feeding has been the means of our securing fully twice 
the amount of surplus honey from nearly every colony that we ever fed 
in this way, over what we could secure when the bees were left unfed, 
and they had to use three or four weeks of the clover harvest to rear 
brood and bees to gather the little they could find after the harvest was 
practically over. 
The cut does not show the under cover of our hives. This has a 
¥%-inch bee-space on each side, and it is very handy to cover over the 
top of the hive when extracting. It forms two dead-air spaces between 
the outside cover and the top of the combs, which is valuable both in 
extremely hot or cold weather. You will also see in the cut the entrance 
to our hive, and the blocks we use to close the same when we wish in 
cool weather, so only one or two bees can pass at a time. I wish I 
could impress the importance of this one thing, spring feeding, on the 
minds of bee-keepers in its true light; for I am sure that, if we give our 
bees the proper care in this respect, they will repay it in a bountiful 
harvest at the close of the season. 
I am well aware that I am again in the minority on this important 
part of spring management; and I assure you it is not pleasant to stem 
the tide so often; but I find I either have to do it or keep still. I have 
only to recall the result of some feeding we did two years ago to show 
you why I am so much interested in spring feeding. We fed one half 
our apiary (250 colonies) about 40 cents’ worth of syrup apiece, shortly 
after taking them from the cellar, and, although these were the lightest 
and weakest colonies we had, we extracted during our clover harvest 
over seven tons of nice clover honey from the 250 colonies fed, and only 
about four tons from the 250 colonies not fed. But during the bass- 
wood and buckwheat flow there was no difference in the amount of sur- 
