106 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



seeing that they are not expected to come often, so the 

 whole force of feeders, some fifty, were put into action. 



Part were put in the home apiary and part taken to 

 the out-apiaries. When going to an out-apiary a bag of 

 sugar was taken along. Water was put in the wash- 

 boiler on the cook-stove and a good fire built under it. 

 A good-sized tin pail was filled half full or more with the 

 heated water, then sugar was poured in till the pail was 

 nearly full, and it was stirred with a stick till fairly well 

 dissolved, which did not take very long. The syrup was 

 then poured into the feeder on one of the hives, a pail 

 half full of water was taken in and poured into the boiler, 

 and then another colony was fed, and this was continued 

 till all the feeders were supplied. The next day or so 

 the feeders were shifted to another set of hives, till all 

 were fed. 



FEEDING IN JUNE. 



You will notice this is considerably different from the 

 early spring feeding. The colonies were stronger in 

 June, the weather warmer, and the bees made rapid work 

 carrying down the feed. It was better to dissolve the 

 sugar before putting it in the feeders (perhaps it is bet- 

 ter at any time), for then there was no danger of having 

 dry sugar left in the feeder. Perhaps there was no real 

 gain in using hot water when the colonies were strong and 

 the weather warm. I tried cold water in some cases, and 

 it worked all right, only it took more stirring. 



ORIGINAL MILLER FEEDER. 



Most of my feeders are of the original pattern (Fig. 

 40). At Fig. 41 is seen one of them dissected. The 

 lower part is an ordinary section-super. On this rests 

 the feeder proper, with the little board at one end re- 

 moved, also the little board at one side, so as to show the 

 inside wall under which the syrup may flow, and the out- 



