18 
A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
FEEDING MEAL. 
I used to read about feeding meal in the spring. I tried it, 
put out rye meal, and not a bee would touch it; baited them 
with honey, and if they took the honey, they left the meal. 
Finally, one day, I saw a bee alight on a dish of flour set in 
a sunny place. It went at it in a rollicking manner as if 
delighted. I was more delighted. At last I had in some 
way got the thing right, and my bees would take meal. The 
bee loaded up, and lugged off its load, and I waited for it and 
others to come for more. They didn’t come, and that was 
the first and last load taken that year. I cannot tell now 
exactly when the change came about, neither do I know that 
I have done anything different, but I have no trouble now in 
getting the bees to take bushels of meal. I suppose the 
simple explanation is that there was plenty of natural pollen 
for the few bees I had in the first years, but not enough for 
the larger number of colonies I had later. 
About as soon as the bees are set out in the spring, I begin 
feeding them meal. For this purpose I like shallow boxes, 
and generally use hive-covers 4 inches deep. These are 
placed in a sunny place about a foot apart, one end raised 
three or four inches higher than the other. This may be 
done by putting a stone under one end, although I generally 
place them along the edge of a little ditch where no stone is 
needed, and they can be whirled around 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. 
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 paraffine combs with glucose 
