92 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



FEEDING MEAL. 



I used to read about feeding meal in the spring. I tried 

 it, put out rj'e-meal, and not a bee would touch it; baited them 

 with honey, and if they took the honey they left the meal. 

 Finally, one day, I saw a bee alight on a dish of flour set in a 

 sunny place. It went at it in a rollicking manner as if delight- 

 ed. I was more delighted. At last I had in some way got the 

 thing right, and my bees would take meal. The bee loaded up, 

 and lugged off its load, and I waited for it and others to come 

 for more. They didn't come, and that was the first and last 

 load taken that year. I cannot tell now exactly when the change 

 came about, neither do I know that I have done anything 

 different, but I have no trouble now in getting the bees to take 

 bushels of meal. I suppose the simple explantion is that there 

 was plenty of natural pollen for the few bees I had in the first 

 years, but not enough for the larger number of colonies I had 

 later. 



About as soon as the bees are set out in the spring, I begin 

 feeding them meal, although some years I do not offer any 

 substitute for pollen. For this purpose I like shallow boxes, 

 and generally use old hive-covers 4 inches deep. These are 

 placed in a sunny place about a foot apart, one end raised three 

 or four inches higher than the other. This may be done by 

 putting a stone under one end, although I generally place them 

 along the edge of a little ditch where no stone is needed, and 

 they can be whirled around as if on a central pivot. One feed- 

 box is used for every 10 lo 20 colonies, although I am guided 

 rather by what the bees seem to need, adding more boxes as fast 

 as the ones already given are eiowded with bees. 



SUBSTITUTES FOR POLLEN. 



I can hardly tell what I have not used for meal. I have 

 used meal or flour of pretty much all the grains, bran, shorts, 

 and all the different feeds used for cows in this noted dairy 

 region, including even the yellow meal brought from glucose 

 factories for cow-feed, although, if this last were known, it 

 might be reported that 1 filled paraffin combs with glucose and 

 soak'ii them nvpr with a hot butcher-knife. 1 think this glucose 



