HOW TO FEED.
The requisites of a good feeder are: Cheapness, a form to admit quick feeding, to permit no loss of heat, and so arranged that we can feed without in any way disturbing the bees. The feeder ([Fig, 54]) which I have used with the best satisfaction, is a modified division-board, the top-bar of which ([Fig, 54, b]) is two inches wide. From the upper central portion, beneath the top-bar, a rectangular piece, the size of an oyster-can, is replaced with an oyster-can (Fig 54, g), after the top of the latter has been removed. A vertical piece of wood ([Fig. 54, d]) is fitted into the can so as to separate a space about one inch square, on one side from the balance of the chamber. This piece does not reach quite to the bottom of the can, there being a one-eighth inch space beneath. In the top-bar there is an opening ([Fig. 54, e]) just above the smaller space below. In the larger space is a wooden float ([Fig. 54, f]) full of holes. On one side, opposite the larger chamber of the can, a half-inch piece of the top ([Fig. 54, c]) is cut off, so that the bees can pass between the can and top-bar on to the float, where they can sip the feed. The feed is turned into the hole in the top-bar ([Fig. 54, e]), and without touching a bee, passes down under the vertical strip ([Fig. 54, d]) and raises the float ([Fig. 54, f]). The can may be tacked to the board at the ends near the top. Two or three tacks through the can into the vertical piece ([Fig. 54, d]) will hold the latter firmly in place; or the top-bar may press on the vertical piece so that it cannot move. Crowding a narrow piece of woolen cloth between the can and board, and nailing a similar strip around the beveled edge of the division-board makes all snug.
Fig. 55.
One of our students suggests the name "Perfection" for this feeder. The feeder is placed at the end of the brood-chamber ([page 137]), and the top-bar covered by the quilt. To feed, we have only to fold the quilt over, when with a tea-pot we pour the feed into the hole in the top-bar. If a honey-board is used, there must be a hole in this just above the hole in the division-board feeder. In either case, no bees can escape, the heat is confined, and our division-board feeder is but little more expensive than a division-board alone.
Some apiarists prefer a quart tin can with finely perforated cover. This is filled with liquid, the cover put on, and the whole quickly inverted and set above a hole in the quilt. Owing to the pressure of the air, the liquid will not descend so rapidly that the bees cannot sip it up.
Many other styles of feeders are in use, as the "Simplicity" and "Boss," but I have yet to see one that in all respects equals the one figured and described above.
The best time to feed is just at night-fall. In this case the feed will be carried away before the next day, and the danger to weak colonies from robbing is not so great.
In feeding during the cold days of April, all should be close above the bees to economize the heat. In all feeding, care is requisite that we may not spill the feed about the apiary, as this may, and very generally will, induce robbing.
CHAPTER IX.
QUEEN REARING.
Suppose the queen is laying two thousand eggs a day, and that the full number of bees is forty thousand, or even more—though the bees are liable to so many accidents, and as the queen does not always lay to her full capacity, it is quite probable that this is about an average number—it will be seen that each day that a colony is without a queen there is a loss equal to about one-twentieth of the working force of the colony, and this is a compound loss, as the aggregate loss of any day is its special loss, augmented by the several losses of the previous days. Now, as queens are liable to die, to become impotent, and as the act of increasing colonies demands the absence of queens, unless the apiarist has extra ones at his command, it is imperative, would we secure the best results, to ever have at hand extra queens. So the young apiarist must early learn