90 THE BLESSED BEES. 



racks so that the whole could be set on or lifted off 

 at once, I extracted closely from every hive, re- 

 moved all the combs except those containing brood, 

 crowded the bees on these brood combs, and put in 

 the division boards, then set on the rack of boxes, 

 put on a super which nicely shut in the boxes, and 

 still had room in the rear end for hanging in the 

 feeder. At dusk, when no bees were flying, I went 

 along by the rear end of the hives, filled the feeders 

 from a large tin pail with a spout, and hung them 

 into the supers, just as a frame would hang. At this 

 first feeding every feeder was filled with honey, for 

 I wanted so to excite the bees by giving them sud- 

 denly a large quantity, as to lead them to begin 

 vigorously in the boxes at once. On examination 

 in the morning I found that the feeders were empty, 

 but that work had been commenced in only a few 

 of the boxes. I inferred that the larger part of 

 this first feed had been stored in the vacant part of 

 the brood-combs and drew the moral that in future 

 the brood combs must be full, either of brood or 

 honey, before feeding for comb-honey was begun. 

 I filled the feeders again that morning, and at night 

 found that work was going on in many of the boxes. 

 Again at night the feeders were filled, and in the 

 morning they were empty, comb was being built in 

 nearly all the boxes, and stored in them. I did not 

 fill the feeders again this morning, for it was not 



