84 ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 



syrup, costing about 75 cents, or half the amount the honey will bring, 

 there is a saving of over $400 in an apiary of 600 colonies. Besides the 

 bees are given a much safer an/ "letter winter food. 



"We have been so well pleased with our experience along this line, 

 and the experience of these noted bee-keepers, that we are now winter- 

 ing some 200 colonies almost wholly on sugar syrup. 



The first important part is a convenient feeder, one that will hold 

 at one time all the feed necessary for one colony. This we made by 

 taking 50 of our outside telescope caps, having a rim 2 inches deep all 

 around. The inside of these we gave a good coating of hot paraffine 

 wax, which prevents the syrup from penetrating into the wood, and 

 also stops leaking. These caps are % inch larger each way inside than 

 the hive is outside. 



We put a suitable float to prevent the bees from drowning in the 

 warm syrup, and also put two cleats across inside the feeder for the 

 hive to rest on; then about sundown we took these 50 cap feeders and 

 set one properly leveled up near each hive we wanted to feed. With the 

 syrup as hot as the bees could stand we poured into the feeder the 

 amount we thought the colony required, then, carefully lifting the hive 

 from its boitom-board, we set it inside the feeder directly over the warm 

 syrup, and ti;e job was done. The bees at once went down into the 

 feeder and removed all the syrup long before morning; so the next 

 day all we had to do was to set the hives back on their bottom-boards 

 and place the 50 feeders ready to feed 50 more colonies the following 

 night. After we had the syrup ready it required only about half an 

 hour for my son and myself to feed 50 colonies. In four evenings, be- 

 tween sundown and dark, we had the 200 colonies all fed, and not a 

 spoonful of syrup was wasted nor a handful of bees lost. 



This feeding was done on quite cold frosty nights about Oct. 25. 



Now, if we were feeding in early fall for the purpose of brood- 

 rearing it would be necessary to feed much thinner syrup, and only two 

 or three pounds a day, about the same as we would feed in the spring 

 in order to stimulate brood-rearing. 



Every year's experience convinces me more and more of the im- 

 portance of feeding our bees at certain times of the year. We as honey- 

 producers have sadly neglected this important part of our business. 



There are many of us who neglect to do certain things both useful 

 and necessary for the welfare of ourselves and bees, simply because we 

 have no convenient and quick way to do the work. In feeding these 200 

 colonies I have just mentioned, if we had been obliged to feed them in 

 our small spring feeders holding only about 2 lbs. each, we should have 

 had an elephant on our hands; and the feeding, if done at all, would 

 have required two weeks or more, as the bees would hardly have entered 

 a small feeder so late In the season. 



The principal advantage in late fall feeding is to have the bees 

 store the syrup in and around the cluster where they have removed the 

 honey during the last of their breeding in the fall; then this is first con- 



