FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 101 



oi" four inches higher than the other. This may be done by 

 putting a stone under one end, although I generally place their. 

 along the edge of a little ditch where no stone is needed, and 

 they can be whirled' ar.ound as if on a central pivot. One feed- 

 box is used for every 10 to 20 colonies, although I am guided 

 rather by what the bees seem to need, adding more boxes as fast 

 as the ones already given are crowded with bees. . 



SUBSTITUTES FOB TOLLEN. 



I can hardly tell what I have not used for meal. I have 

 used meal or flour of pretty much all the grains, bran, shorts, 

 and all the different feeds used for cows in this noted dairy 

 region, including even the yellow meal brought from glucose 

 factories for - cow-feed, although, if this last were known, it 

 might be reported that I filled paraffin combs with glucose and 

 ifeaied them over with a hot butcher-knife. I think this glucose 

 meal is perhaps the poorest feed I have used. As to the rest T 

 hardly know which is best, and I have of late used principally 

 com and oats ground together, partly because I was using that 

 for horse and cow feed, and partly because I think it may; be 

 as good as any. . 'j 



When the feed-boxes are put in place, in the morning |and 

 I commence this feeding just as soon as the bees are ont of the 

 cellar), I put in each box at the raised end about four tQ six 

 quarts (thie quantity is not very material) of the feed^^The 

 more compact, and the less scattered the feed the better. .The 

 bees will gradually dig it down until it is all settled in the lower 

 end of the box, just the same as so much water would settle 

 there. This may take an hour, or it may take six, according to 

 circumstances. As often as they dig it down, I reverse the 

 position of the box, just whirling it around if it stands on the 

 edge of the ditch. This brings the meal again at the raised end 

 of the box. When the bees have dug it down level there is little 

 to be seen on the top except the hulls of the oats, and what fun 

 it is to see the bees burrow in this, sometimes clear out of sight! 



It is always a source of amusement to see the bees working 

 on this meal, and the young folks watch them by the half -hour. 

 By night the oatmeal and finer parts of the corn are nearly all 

 vvprked out, and after the bees have stopped working, the bgxes 



