The honey-bee: its nature, homes and products

by William Hetherington Harris

Troughs—Dangers of this Method—Bottle Feeders—Cheshire's Feeding Stage—Neighbour's Can Feeder—The "Round Feeder"—Autumn Feeding—Spring Feeding—Uses of Precautions—Summer Feeding of Swarms—Flour-cake—Barley-sugar or Sugar-cake—Mr. Hunter's Recipe.

We have already spoken of the advantages consequent on feeding swarms for a few days after they emerge, especially if the weather should be wet, cold, or dull. It is even more important to see that in spring and autumn, if the stocks require food, it is given to them. With the old-fashioned skep there are difficulties in the successful supply of nourishment. The ordinary plan used to be to take a piece of elder-wood, and having cut it down the middle, and having removed the pith, to stop the open ends, or manage to have a knot at each, and then, having filled these long narrow troughs with syrup, to insert them into the hive by the entrance hole. Several disadvantages attend this plan. Firstly, there is the danger of spilling some of the liquid, and so inducing visits of bees from near hives, and setting up "robbing," with its disasters. Next, it is almost impossible, without constant attention, to give a proper amount of food thus. Thirdly, the bees being attracted to the floor of the hive, often become numbed in cold weather, and perish. Fourthly, where considerable feeding is necessary, and has to be rapidly done, it is impossible to accomplish it by this method, except at the cost of immense trouble.

Skeps which have a flat or broad top, with a hole fitted with a cork, can be supplied in a much better manner by one of the various kinds of apparatus we shall now describe.

Fig. 66.—Bottle Feeder.

First, the "bottle feeder" consists of a glass jar (such as pickles, French plums, jams, marmalade, &c., are sold in), resting on a block, square or round, as may be convenient, and having a hole cut to receive the neck of the bottle. Over the hole is fastened a piece of perforated zinc with very fine meshes. Over the mouth of the battle a piece of fine net or muslin should be secured by a band round the neck, after the syrup has been poured In. Then the block having been put over the hole in the top of the hive, the bottle of syrup may be inverted and stood in the hollow prepared for it. The bees will soon become aware of the fact that food is within their reach, and poking their tongues through the zinc and muslin, they will draw what supplies they need. As no air can get through the syrup, the liquid will run only as fast as it is imbibed by the bees, unless, through sun-heat, the bottle should become so warmed as to cause the air inside to expand, and thrust out the food faster than it can be drunk. It is easy to avoid this danger by properly covering the bottle. Another, and still more important, reason for protecting it is to prevent any bees from another hive getting at it; for should they do so, robbing is very likely to ensue, stolen sweets having a most demoralising effect on bees, as well as on human beings; and this trouble once started, it is difficult to stop it before all the weak stocks have been plundered and destroyed by their stronger neighbours.

Fig. 67.—Cheshire's Feeding Stage.

In order to regulate precisely the quantity of food it may be desirable to give to a stock, Mr. Cheshire has devised, instead of the muslin cover, a piece of vulcanite pierced with holes in a particular pattern, and rotating round a screw in such a way that one, two, three, or any required number of holes may be open at the same time. He also uses, and recommends, a small shovel, in which the bottle of syrup is first inverted. Then, when placed just over the vulcanite plate, the shovel is quickly withdrawn without the loss of any of the liquid.

This matter of carefully controlling the quantity of food allowed, is very important in the spring, when it is desired not only to save impoverished stocks from dying of hunger, but to stimulate well-doing stocks to early breeding. For, if too abundant supplies of syrup are given, the bees, in their determination not to miss any opportunity of storing at a time when there is no honey to be got out of doors, will fill the middle cells which are nearest the bottle, instead of leaving them for the queen to deposit eggs in, as she would naturally do, to secure them the full warmth of the cluster of her subjects.