Cottager and Smallholder 



33 



XII.— FEEDERS AND FEEDING. 



It is sometimes necessary to feed bees. At times 

 they place all the honey gathered in the supers, leaving the 

 brood chamber with very little stored in it. As it 

 is possible to actually see the amount of food stored in movable 

 combs, instead of having to guess at the weight — as was the 

 case under old-fashioned conditions — many colonies, which 

 would otherwise perish, 

 can be saved by supplying 

 a little extra food. 



Feeding can be done at 

 all seasons if necessary. 

 In the early spring 

 stimulative feeding is 

 carried out by means of 

 the regulation bottle- 

 feeder, Fig. 43, or by 

 giving about one-quartei- 

 of a pint of syrup every 

 third night, in a wide- 

 necked jam jar, with a 

 double thickness of 

 muslin tied over the top, 

 Pig. 44, or in a rapid 

 feeder, Fig. 45. A feed- 

 hole is made in the 

 calico quilt by cutting 

 on three sides of a square about three inches, so that a flap is 

 made^to turn down to prevent the bees escaping when a feeder 

 is not in use. The jar is inverted over the feed-hole, and the 

 bees suck the syrup through the muslin. 



The food should be given at night, and should be new milk 

 warm. It is also made thin, as bees require a lot of water 

 in the spring for rearing brood, which is the object of slow 

 feeding. If there is a continual slow supply of food coming 

 in, the queen lays more continuously. If the food is given too 

 rapidly it does harm instead of good, as they store it in 

 those cells which should be left for the queen to lay in. It 

 is also harmful to give syrup when there is an abundant 

 supply of natural food in the combs. In such a case for 

 stimulation it is only necessary to bruise the cappings of the 

 honey just round the brood patch on each "comb. Artificial 

 pollen should be supplied by putting Symington's Pea Flour 

 on hay chaff, sheltered from the wet in a box in the garden. 



Fio. 43. 



