Advanced beSe-cui^turiS. 



taining it to the back of the stove where 

 it will boil slowly. Watch it carefully 

 and try it frequently. As soon as it is 

 sufficiently hard, remove it from the 

 stove and pour into shallow dishes to 

 cool. Be careful not to get it too hard. 

 If it is hard enough to retain its form 

 when pliced over a colony of bees, that 

 is sufficient. A thin cake of such candy 

 laid directly upon the frames over the 

 cluster of bees, and then the whole top 

 of the hive covered with a piece of enam- 

 eled cloth, and two or three thicknesses 

 of old carpet over that, will enable the 

 bees to ''hold the fort" as long as the 

 candy lasts. If for any reason it is im- 

 possible or undesirable to place candy in 

 this manner upon the tops of the frames, 

 the candy may be "run" directly into 

 empty brood frames, and the frames 

 hung in the hives adjoining the cluster 

 of bees. To fill a frame with candy, lay 

 it upon a smooth board with a piece of 

 paper under the frame, and pour in the 

 candy after waiting until it is as cool as 

 it can be and yet be made to "run." To 

 keep the frame down close to the paper, 

 so that the soft candy will not run out 

 while cooling, tack the frame down with 

 some wire nails driven through it into 

 the board. Have the nails just long 

 enough to hold the frame down nicely, 

 but not long enough to make it difficult 

 of removal. If a full frame of candy is 

 more than a colony needs, a less amount 

 may be given by tacking a cross-bar 

 in the frame, part way up from the bot- 

 tom, and filling the upper space only with 

 candy. 



Henry Alley recommends the use of 

 "Good candy" for feeding bees in wixiter. 

 This candy is made by mixing pulver- 

 ized sugar and extracted honey until it is 

 of the consistency of a stiff dough. It is 

 almost impossible to get it too stiff. 

 When first mixed it may be quite hard, 

 but will be found quite soft and plastic in 

 a day or two. To place this candy in a 

 hive, tack thin boards upon one side of 

 an empty brood frame, covering one 

 whole side of the frame. The frame is 



thus virtually transformed into a shallow 

 tray. Fill it with the soft candy, then 

 cover the other side of the frame with 

 thin boards, except a small space at the 

 top. In the opening thus left, the bees 

 can enter and carry away the food. The 

 frame of food thus prepared is hung in 

 the hive adjoining the cluster, with the 

 opening turned towards the bees. 



The above methods of feeding are pref- 

 erable to feeding syrup, which is more 

 difficult to give and contains so much 

 water. If it must be used, let it be made 

 as thick as possible. 



Mice sometimes do some little damage 

 both to colonies wintered indoors and 

 those in the open air. This damage is 

 confined principally to that of gnawing 

 the combs. If bee-keepers would only 

 remeinber that bees can pass through a 

 space that is less than % of an inch, and 

 that a mouse needs a space nearly twice 

 this, it would seem that there need be no 

 trouble in keeping mice out of hives. 

 Simply contract the entrance until it is 

 only yi of an inch the narrowest way, 

 and no mice can enter. This should be 

 done quite early in the fall, as cool, frosty 

 nights often drive the mice into the warm 

 retreat to be found inside a bee-hive. 

 When bees are wintered in the cellar, 

 many bee-keepers practice raising the 

 hives about two inches from the bottom 

 board; others remove the bottom board 

 entirelv. This allows plenty of ventila- 

 tion, but scarcely any escape of heat. 

 All dead bees and rubbish drop down 

 away from the cluster of bees, where they 

 dry up instead of becoming moldy and 

 rotten from contact with the warmth and 

 moisture of the cluster. If a colony does 

 die, the combs are left dry and clean, in- 

 stead of being stuck together with a mass 

 of damp, moldy, rotting bees. All who 

 have tried raising the hives in this man- 

 ner, are enthusiastic in its praise; but it 

 will be seen that this plan gives the mice, 

 if there are any in the cellar, free access 

 to the hives. 



Dr. C. C. Miller heads off the mice by 

 the use of what he calls a reversible bot- 



