FEEDING. 33 



pound. A good way to give it is in a frame, which can be 

 sent to the sugar-b6ilers to be filled while the sugar-barley is 

 hot. When cool, it is hung in the hive next the outside 

 comb, and the bees will soon clear out the food and store it 

 in the combs. To give a stock sufficient food in this way, 

 three frames of sugar-barley will be required, and this supply 

 should last well into the following spring. This is the 

 safest and least troublesome way tp provision a stock of bees 

 for the winter. 



All feeding should be over by the first week in October 

 at latest, so that the bees can go into winter quarters with- 

 out any delay, if rendered necessary by cold weather. The 

 first thing is to reduce the size of the hive by lifting out an 

 empty comb (great care must be taken to see that there is 

 no brood in it), and placing it outside the front division- 

 board, the latter being moved up close to the remaining 

 combs, so as to fill the vacant space. The bees, if any, on 

 the empty frame, will soon join those in the hive, and carry 

 in the honey with them. Other frames can be lifted out in 

 this way until there are only seven or eight combs, if the 

 stock is a very strong one, and five or six if an average one, 

 between the division-boards. The hive is contracted in this 

 way so that there will be no space in the hive in addition to 

 that occupied by the bees. The advantages of this are, that 

 the bees will be warmer, and consequently will consume less 

 honey, and also the combs will not be liable to mildew, as 

 they are when not covered with bees. If two or three 

 thicknesses of old flannel or blanket are now placed over 

 the quilt, and if the roof is waterproof, the bees will safely 

 withstand the severest winter experienced in these latitudes, 

 and beyond clearing the hive of dead bees in February or 

 March, they will not require much attention until the follow- 

 ing April. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Some bee-keepers are so wedded to the barbarous custom 

 of smothering their bees that it is mere waste of time to tell 

 them of the more profitable bar-frame system, but they may 



c 



