FEEDING BEES, 69 
the rest ‘of the season. It also enables the old stock to produce a 
much larger amount of surplus honey after swarming, than they 
otherwise would; the swarms also have time to increase their num- 
bers by breeding, and not only to provide sufficient honey for their 
own support, but often a surplus of from ten to twenty lbs. 
Various plans and devices for feeding bees have been recommended 
and adopted by different apiarians. Some have recommended a large 
feeder, (or several of them in a large apiary,) placed near the hives, 
and all the bees fed at the same time. But I think whoever tries this 
wholesale feeding will be glad to abandon it, especially if he has any 
neighboring bees within two miles of his apiary. I know of several 
who have commenced feeding in this way, (as recommended by Mr. 
Gilmore, of Maine,) who not only were robbed of so large an amount 
of their feed, but they were obliged to stop feeding; but after they 
did stop, had their hives attacked by the bees that had been baited 
there by the feed; and several colonies ruined by them. 
Bees may be fed in the top of chamber hives, sufficient to sustain 
them, provided especial care is taken to prevent robbing. Before 
feeding is commenced, the hives should be set down on their floors, 
and the entrance for the bees closed so as to admit only one or two 
atatime. Ifthe hive is a chamber-hive the feeder may be placed in 
the chamber ; if the hive has*no chamber, two or three inch auger- 
holes may be bored in the top, and the feeder placed by the side of 
them, and covered with a small box, and this covered with a piece of 
old carpet, to prevent other bees scenting the feed. If the hive is not 
filled down within three inches of the bottom with combs, the feeder 
may be set there, if but little feeding is desired; but recollect, when 
feeding from the bottom the bees must be confined entirely while feed- 
ing, or robbers will be sure to find it. 
A feeder with a floating cover, made either of narrow strips of 
boards, from one-eighth to one-quarter inch thick, and half inch 
wide, with narrow strips tacked across their ends; or it may be made 
of one piece slit with a fine saw as near together as every half inch, to 
within three-quarters of an inch of one end, and a piece tacked across 
each end to hold the strips in their places. A small wooden pin or 
nail should be put in each end, one and a half inches high, to afford 
