272 
THE IirV'K AND HONEY-BEE. 
shallow wooden troughs, or vessels filled with floats or 
straw, from which — sheltered from cold winds, and 
warmed by the genial rays of the sun — they can drink 
without risk of drowning. 
Bees seem to be so fond of salt, that they will alight 
upon our hands to lick up the saline perspiration. 
“ During the early part of the breeding season,” says Dr. 
Bevan, “ till the beginning of May, I keep a constant 
supply of salt and water near my Apiary, and find it 
thronged with bees from early morn till late in the 
evening. About this period, the quantity they consume 
is considerable, but afterwards they seem indifferent to it. 
The eagerness they evince for it at one period of the 
season, and their indifference at another, may account for 
the opposite opinions entertained respecting it.” 
The Rev. Mr. Weigel, of Silesia, recommends plain 
sugar-candy as a substitute for liquid honey. If bees can 
get access to it, without being chilled, they will cluster 
on it, and, when supplied with water, will gradually, eat it 
up. Four pounds of candy* will, it is said, sustain a colony 
having scarcely any winter stores. It is cheaper than 
liquid food, and less liable to sour in the cells. 
If the common hives are inverted, and sticks of candy 
placed gently between the combs where the bees are 
clustered, they may be easily fed in the coldest weather. 
In my hives, if the spare honey-board, or cover, is elevated 
on strips of wood-, about an inch and a half above the 
frames, and the candy laid on them just above the clus- 
tered bees, it will be accessible to them in the coldest 
* To make candy for bee-feed: add water to the sugar, and clarify the syrup 
with eggs; put about a teaspoonful of cream of tartar to about 20 lbs. of sugar, 
and boil until the water is evaporated. 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 shallow pans, slightly greased, and, when 
cold, break it into pieces of a suitable size. After boiling, balm, or any other 
flavor agreeable to bees, may bo put into the syrup. 
