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A Modern Bee-Farm 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



FEEDING AND FEEDERS. 



WHEN and how to feed are questions of considerable 

 importance to bee-keepers generally. In the apiary where 

 bees and queens are raised for sale, feeding has often to be 

 resorted to, as nothing is so exhaustive as the production of bees 

 and queens on a large scale. Many colonies are reduced to such 

 an extent, that the remaining bees are occupied entirely in brood 

 rearing, forced on to the utmost by the master. Honey is quite a 

 secondary object, bees must be had. Consequently honey cannot 

 always be obtained even when the average colony is storing, and 

 the forcing process must therefore be kept up by some substitute. 



Dry Sugar Feeding. 



For spring feeding generally and for use with nuclei I have 

 found nothing so stimulative as my plan of dry sugar feeding. 

 The feeder consists of a hollow dummy with one side hinged on 

 simple wire nails and held by the same above ; or by staples 

 turned at right angles to project over the margin below and a 

 turned wire inserted at either corner at the top, which can be 

 moved out of the way to allow of easily removing the side. The 

 space between the sides should not be more than one inch, or 

 comb will frequently be built therein. 



Sugar known as Porto Rico, a soft, moist article, is used, being 

 pressed in tightly, and the bees, entering above the moveable side, 

 which does not reach the top bar by i-inch, are soon busily 

 engaged in reducing the food to syrup. 



