354 
FEEDING AND FEEDERS 
colonies and 'nuclei, for the bees in the 
field will pry into everything. An entrance 
unguarded is immediately attacked; and 
unless there is sufficient force to repel the 
onslaught, robbing will get so far under 
way that it may cause the robbing-out of 
the attacked colony. But this is not all. 
When the supply of syrup in the feeders 
fails, bees are apt to be cross, sometimes 
attacking passers-by or stock in the fields. 
This is particularly so if robbing gets un¬ 
der way. For these reasons it is usually 
advisable to feed toward night. 
Happily it is possible to avoid all this 
trouble by using a feeder that will make 
a quart or a pint of syrup last during the 
entire 24 hours of the day. In the case of 
a nucleus, the amount can be so regulated 
as to last 36 or 48 hours. 
When the supply of food comes in very 
slowly, about as it would come in from a 
very moderate honey flow, enough to give 
the bees and queen encouragement to keep 
up brood-rearing, they will rear more 
brood than if the supply is intermittent. 
All excitement—that is, uproar in the air 
—as well as robbing is avoided. It is im¬ 
possible to fix the Simplicity, Alexander, 
and Doolittle feeders so that they will not 
give out the syrup too fast; but it is pos¬ 
sible to regulate the friction-top, pepper¬ 
box, and Boardman entrance feeders. This 
is accomplished by using lids having but 
three or four holes or perforations. 
For stimulating, this slow feeding is a 
great convenience, because one can give his 
bees a supply of food to keep up the nor¬ 
mal functions of the colony for two or 
three days. For very slow feeding one 
hole is better than more. A strong colony 
will require more openings than a weak 
one; and in all cases syrup for stimulating 
should be in the proportion of about 66 
per cent water and 33 per cent sugar, 
thoroly stirred until the sugar is dissolved. 
Perhaps the reader does not own any 
friction-top, pepper-box, or Boardman 
feeders, and yet would like to practice slow 
feeding as herein directed. All he needs to 
do is to procure a quantity of self-sealing 
tin cans that can be readily obtained at 
the ordinary grocery. Thru the top punch 
a hole just large enough to admit a com¬ 
mon pin. If this hole does not prove large 
enough to let out sufficient food, two holes 
may be used, or even three, depending 
upon the size of the colony. This can 
should then be filled with syrup, and the 
top pushed firmly in place. 
Experiments have shown that this 
scheme of slow feeding will raise more 
brood for the sugar used than where the 
same amount is given intermittently in 
open feeders like the Simplicity, Alexan¬ 
der, and the Doolittle. The author prefers 
the Boardman entrance-feeders because it 
is possible to see at a glance thru the glass 
when the syrup has been used up. If the 
supply has been taken, it is very easy to 
put a filled can in the place of the empty 
without disturbing the hive or the bees. 
FEEDING FOB WINTER. 
If colonies are to be wintered on sugar . 
syrup mainly, the general practice is to 
feed some time in September, in the north¬ 
ern tier of States. Still, in many locali¬ 
ties in central United States, there is warm 
weather in October sufficient to start brood¬ 
rearing, and much of the stores fed in Sep¬ 
tember may be consumed so that what is 
left is not sufficient to last until the new 
honey flow. For this reason it is often un¬ 
safe to feed in September and give no fur¬ 
ther attention to the bees. There are other 
cases whefi, for one reason or another, feed¬ 
ing may be delayed until cold weather be¬ 
gins. If one is running a number of out- 
yards it is impossible, without hiring a 
large force of men, to feed all these yards 
at once, and by the time the last yard is 
reached it may be rather late. 
But before we begin the actual work of 
feeding we make a preliminary canvass of 
the whole apiary. This we do by “hefting” 
each hive; that is, we lift up either the 
front or back of the hive. A little practice 
will enable one to determine approximately 
the amount of stores in each hive, provided 
there is not too large a force of bees. In 
that event, we must allow for a correspond¬ 
ing increase. As we go over each hive we 
mark on the cover with a piece of chalk the 
number of pounds that will be required. If 
the colony is a strong one, we allow for a 
total of 25 or 30 lbs. if it is to be wintered 
outdoors; or if indoors, about two-thirds 
that. We aim to have each colony strong 
enough so that it will require an average 
