382 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
and this is necessary, for foreign bodies in the syrup 
soon close the small openings in the spout. The 
most durable substance for such a can is zinc, but 
the syrup must be kept from contact with it (see 
“Extractors’’). This can readily be managed if we 
first heat the metal, by holding the can in water 
at a higher temperature than that at which wax melts 
(150® Fahr.), and then, being careful that the interior 
is dry, paint with liquid wax. 
In these days of science it is hardly necessary to 
explain that, if a bottle with a wide mouth be filled 
with syrup, and a fine canvas tied over it, it can be 
at once inverted without the contents escaping, be- 
cause of the upward pressure of the air. If the 
bottle be turned over slowly, the syrup will commence 
to flow out at the lowest part of the canvas, because 
the air will enter at its highest. This cannot be 
thoroughly prevented, however rapidly the inversion 
be performed, unless some flat surface, such as the 
bottom of a plate, be first put over the canvas, and 
held in position until the inversion of the bottle has 
been completed. If the latter now be placed over the 
feed-hole {fh, Fig. 7) of a skep, the bees quickly, with- 
out chill, and without leaving their cluster, draw awav 
the contents, by the passing of their tongues through 
the meshes of the canvas, and air, in bubbles, passes 
in to supply its place. A far neater way of applying this 
principle is by using a small board about 5in. square, 
having a circular hole rather less In diameter than 
the neck of the food-bottle. Upon this may be fixed 
fine perforated zinc, that known as Braby No. 6 being 
best. Such a feeding-stage is suitable for the frame 
