Deoember 16, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
551 
Cinerarias and Calceolarias .—Remove these from cold frames to some 
coo airy place where they can be protected from frost. This is necessarv, 
especially in damp localities, for it is impossible to keep the foliage from 
araping in cold frames, while in other localities they will be perfectly 
e, provided they are protected from frost. If these plants are housed 
ey must not. be stood upon a dry open stage directly over hot-water 
pipes, for the dry heat arising from them will soon prove ruinous. They 
Mould stand upon a moist base and as little artificial heat as possible 
applied, merely sufficient to exclude frost and damp. 
HE) BEE) KEEPER 
SEASONABLE NOTES. 
The last sad days of another year are gliding swiftly on ; 
a new year will soon be ushered in ; the grave and the cradle’, 
old age and youth, the old year and the new, will meet in 
the midst of cold bleak winter, soon to part for ever. Profit and 
loss,joy and sadness, success and failure have been experienced 
by many in the dying year, who are now able to look back 
upon their failure softened by time, or their success 
mellowed and enhanced by distance, and learn the lessons 
which can alone be taught by experience. A season more 
favourable than we could at first expect—a spring long and 
cold, and a summer of varied temperature, have been succeeded 
by a mild warm autumn which will materially assist the bees 
to tide over the winter which may naturally be expected in 
real earnest before many weeks have elapsed. 
In Cheshire the season has been a good one; those bee¬ 
keepers who were careful last autumn to prepare their stocks 
had the pleasure of seeing thousands of bees busily at work 
in supers; on the other hand, where winter precautions were 
neglected but. poor results have been obtained. Without 
proper care in the autumn months it is unreasonable to 
expect any real success in the following season. True, profit 
is occasionally gained from stocks upon which but very little 
care is bestowed, but when stocks are properly managed we 
know that, given a fairly good season, a surplus will be taken 
from every stock. In my own apiary this season a nett profit 
of £1 15s. has been obtained from each stock. All have been 
managed on the non-swarming system with complete 
success. The honey has been taken almost entirely in 1-lb. 
sections. Foundation has been freely used. No midrib has 
been discovered in any single section, the demand has ex¬ 
ceeded the supply, and already a very large order has been 
taken for section honey next season, but with the condition 
annexed that the honey must be produced in my own apiary. 
It has always been my care to supply only the finest honey 
m the best condition, and the result is that the trouble once 
experienced in selling honey has been succeeded by a demand 
in excess of what it is possible for me to supply. In other 
counties the season appears to have been very variable, and 
even in the same district a grand surplus has been obtained 
m one apiary and nothing in the next. 
A few weeks ago I was informed by a bee-keeper in my 
own locality, whose bees are placed not more than half a 
mile from my own stocks, that there “had been no honey in 
the flowers this year.” I took him and showed him some 
200 one-pound sections, the produce of three stocks, and ha 
began to think that after all the flowers were not to blame 
nor yet the bees, but his own management. This autumn, 
after giving him full instructions and doing all in my power 
to persuade him to change his methods, he has still persisted 
m leaving his bees alone, and from what I have seen of his 
stocks it is evident that his chance of surplus next year is 
lnnnitessimaL Stocks are now in grand condition for winter- 
mg. Frame hives are carefully packed up with porous quilts, 
and section racks filled with cork dust on the top. The bees 
are strong in numbers. The young have had opportunities 
for cleansing flights, and all is prepared for the frost and 
snow and bleak paralysing winds of winter. The hives now 
commonly in use seem to lend themselves very readily to the 
old principle revived in the new Heddon hive, but it will be 
better in some future number to point out in what points the 
Heddon hive resembles and in what it differs from hives 
already in use in this country. All the attention now neces¬ 
sary in apiaries managed upon the system continually advo¬ 
cated in these columns is to keep all entrances clear and open, 
and when snow is on the ground to either shade or shade 
and close the entrance. My own preference is for shading 
and closing every entrance with perforated zinc, taking care 
to open each entrance at once upon the disappearance of the 
snow. 
Preparations for the spring ought soon to be made and 
everything be got ready for the honey flow of 1887. We 
must decide upon cur systems of management and must 
prepare accordingly. We must remember that the competi¬ 
tion becomes keener every year, and that while the best 
honey is readily saleable at a good price, inferior honey is 
scarcely saleable at all.— Felix. 
FEEDING BEES-MY WAY OF DOING IT. 
While an article is more appropriate a little in advance of the time 
required for its use, yet I am ready to admit that it is often the case that 
an article on some phase in bee-keeping, appearing just after '& person 
as ahhd a trial of that very same thing, sinks deeper into the memory and 
does more good than it would had it come at the appropriate time. As 
many of us here at the east have just passed through a siege of feeding 
for winter, of course the matter is still fresh in our minds, and auxiety 
regarding this matter still exist, so I will comply with the request, 
hoping that even those not specially interested may find somethiug of 
interest in it. 
In the first place I wish to say that it is always well to look out in 
advance fir times of scarcity, and during the honey-flow lay aside a good 
supply of nice, sealed, well-ripened honey in frames for use in the fall in 
supplying any deficient colonies which we may have. I know no better 
way of feeding than this, hence I always try to keep a supply of such 
combs on hand. If they are not needed the honey can be just as well 
extracted from them (by placing them in a room kipt at 100° for four 
hours before extracting) in December as in August, so that no loss need 
occur if such combs are not used for feeding. On the contrary a gain 
is made, for the bee-keeper’s time is not nearly so valuable at this 
season of the year. If, however, no such combs of honey had been 
saved we must resort to sugar feeding unless we have plenty of extracted 
honey, which is not supposable, for certainly it is a great waste of time 
to extract honey for the purpose of feeding it back again. 
There are two ways of feeding bees with sugar, one of which is to 
make the sugar into candy, the cakes weighing from 1 lb. to 10 lbs., ac¬ 
cording to the desire of the apiarist. I generally make them of about 
5 lbs. each, and find it a very convenient size. To best get it in the form 
I wish it, I make a frame of the size and height I wish, which is usually 
about 8 inches square and 3 inches high. I now make little mounds of 
sawdust on a bench, raising them about 1 inch high at the highest point. 
Over this mound is placed a piece of newspaper, and on the paper the 
frame which is to receive the candy. This frame should be held secure 
by a weight or some other means, so it cannot raise up and let the candy 
run under it. 
Having the candy boiled to the right consistency, which is known by 
taking out a little and stirring it whilst the rest is partially drawn from 
the fire so it will not cook too fast while you are testing it, so as to get 
the start of you, stir it until it is as thick as it will run, when it is rapidly 
poured into the frames and left until cold. Now lift the frame of candy 
and pull off the paper from the bottom, when it is ready to put on the 
hive, so placing it that the centre of the cluster of bees will come into 
the middle of the convex place in your candy, for this place was made 
for the bses to clustorin so that as many as possible can reach the candy. 
In this way the moisture from the bees during cold nights collects on the 
candy, which m listens it to such an extent that the bees can lick it up, 
thus giving them a supply of food. I find, however, that during an ex¬ 
tremely cold spell, if there is nothing but candy in the hive, the bees may 
fail to cluster on it and starve, therefore I use this only in connection 
with a few pounds of honey in the hive, when it always works well. I 
especially like such cakes of candy in February and March, when there is 
a prospect of the bees getting short of stores. 
The second plan, and the preferable one, is to make the sugar into a 
syrup which is given to the bees during the warm days of September 
and October, so that they can store it in the comb3 and cap it over the 
same as honey. To make the syrup I find the following formula the best, 
after trying nearly all the different ways recommended—Put 15 lbs. of 
water in a vessel that will hold 24 quarts, and boil it. When boiling, 
slowly pour in 30 lbs. of granulate! sugar, stirring it as it is poured in, 
so it will mostly dissolve instead of settling to the bottom and burning. 
Now boil it again, and skim it if impurities arise, when it is to be set from 
the fire and 5 lbs. of well ripened honey stirred in. This gives 50 lbs. 
of feed, which will be of as much value to the bees as 50 lbs. of honey. 
The honey is put in to prevent crystallisation, and with me proves far 
superior to vinegar or cream of tartar. As soon as the syrup is cool enough 
so that you can hold the hand on the outside of the tin dish containing 
the syrup it is ready for the bees. This feeding syrup warm has especial 
