352 
FEEDING AND FEEDERS 
an upper story or super above tlie brood- 
chamber. 
THE ALEXANDER FEEDER. 
This is a very popular feeder, and some 
prefer it to anything else. It is on the 
principle of the Simplicity trough feeder 
and is a little longer than the width of the 
hive. The bottom-board is shoved forward 
the width of the feeder, and in the space 
left vacant is placed the feeder. The pro¬ 
jecting end is used for filling, after which 
it is closed by a wooden block. . 
While this feeder is very handy, it does 
not, like the Boardman, regulate the sup¬ 
ply of feed. The bees will empty it in an 
hour or two, and then be inclined to rob, 
because the large amount given stirs them 
up to the point of excitement. One serious 
objection to the Alexander feeder is that it 
is sometimes difficult, owing to the uneven¬ 
ness of ground, to adjust the feeder to the 
back end of the hive. See Feeding to 
Stimulate further on. 
FRICTION-TOP FEEDER. 
Perhaps about as handy a feeder as any 
is the friction-top feeder, which has been 
coming into favor during recent years. 
The 5 and 10 pound friction-top pails that are 
used so largely make the simplest and best kind of 
feeders for supplying winter stores. Punch the lid 
full of very fine holes, fill with syrup, about two 
parts of sugar to one of water (warm if weather is 
cool), and crowd the lid down tightly. 
This feeder is a five or ten pound friction- 
top pail having a lid punctured with about 
130 holes made with a threepenny nail.' 
The feeders are filled with a syrup, 2 or 
2i/ 2 parts of sugar to one of water, the 
density depending upon the lateness of the 
Invert the pail over the hole in the escape-board 
directly above the cluster in the brood-chamber. 
There is plenty of space to permit the bees to work 
over the whole surface of the lid. 
season. In cold weather the syrup should 
be quite thick and warm. Over the colony 
to be fed, an empty super is placed, and 
one of these pails of syrup inverted imme¬ 
diately over the cluster and covered with 
an old sack to prevent the heat of the clus- 
Or, dispense with the escape-board altogether and 
put the pail directly on the top-bark of the brood- 
frames. Cover all around with an old sack. The 
syrup cannot run out any faster than the bees take 
it. 
ter from escaping above. Some strong 
colonies will take the contents of a ten- 
pound pail in a day. If not taken as rap¬ 
idly as it should be, the residue of the cold 
feed should be removed and replaced by 
warm syrup. 
