860 FEEDING. 



fed in Autumn, will carry a colony safely through the Win- 

 ter, in an ordinary location and season. The bees will carry 

 it up into the cells of such combs as they prefer, where it 

 speedily thickens and becomes covered with a thin film, 

 which keeps it from souring." (Bienenzeitung, 1854, page 

 145.) 



Brown Havanna sugar makes the best candy for a bee- 

 feed. Add water to the sugar, and clarify the syrup with an 

 egg ; then put about a tea-spoon full of cream of tartar, to 

 twenty pounds of sugar, and boil until the water is evapora- 

 ted. To know when it is done, dip your finger first into 

 cold water, and then into the syrup ; if what adheres is 

 brittle when chewed, it is boiled enough. Pour it into pans 

 slightly greased, so that it will be about one quarter of an 

 inch thick. It may now be broken up in pieces, to suit the 

 wants of the bee-keeper. After the syrup is boiled, lemon 

 balm, peppermint, or any other odor agreeable to bees, may 

 be given to it. 



I have already shown how, by transferring some of the 

 fullest honey-combs late in the Fall, to the centre of the 

 hive, bees can be prevented from starving in empty combs, 

 in the Winter. If none of the combs are sufficiently stored 

 with honey, the colony may be confined to about six combs, 

 and the others, after the cappings are sliced off", placed tem- 

 porarily on the spare honey-board, so that the bees can re- 

 move their contents. If they are still deficient in supplies, 

 they may be fed so as to have what is given them, placed in 

 the center for winter use. Not only can there be no change 

 in the relative position of the combs, in the common hive, 

 but if such a hive is well stocked with bees, and only par- 

 tially filled with comb, they will waste much of their food 

 in adding to it. 



The following is, I believe, an original and highly valuable 



