FEEDING.
FEEDING bees, when judiciously managed, is the stepping stone to large
profits from them.
Bee-keepers who have heretofore attempted to feed bees have met with
poor success.
A bee-keeper of my acquaintance paid fifty dollars for a patent
apparatus for feeding bees together in the open air. The result was,
soon after being fed, they commenced fighting among themselves. The
weaker stocks first fell prey to the stronger, then the stronger in
turn were attacked, and the final result was, nearly every stock was
ruined, and the plan abandoned in disgust after the first season's
trial.
Now it is plain to every intelligent person, that in order to receive
the greatest possible profit from bees, they must be fed. There can be
no question as to the great benefit to be derived from feeding bees.
The only question is, how, when and what to feed. It is as much a
necessity to feed bees, as to feed our domestic animals, cows, sheep,
&c., or to apply manure to plants, or any crop the farmer cultivates,
to stimulate growth and increase the product, and consequent profit
of the same. We should look upon that farmer as either a fool or a
lunatic, who should furnish his domestic animals no food, except what
they obtained by grazing in the pastures and fields, the year round.
And do you think his cows treated thus, would yield him a large
product of butter, cheese and milk, and consequently a good profit in
dollars and cents? Do you think he would find his cows, managed thus,
so profitable as to induce him to keep cows to any great extent? Let
a farmer manage thus--take his cows to the barn, milk them, then turn
them out the year round to graze and provide for themselves, taking
them up only to milk them, furnishing them with no food except what
they procure by grazing--how long, think you, would such a farmer have
cows to milk? Yet this is a parallel case with the bee-keeper who
furnishes his bees with no feed except what they can procure by their
own industry. And is it surprising that bees treated thus pay no profit?
Again, the farmer who should year after year plant his corn, potatoes,
etc., apply no manure, furnish no cultivation, yet expect to succeed in
farming, harvest large crops, and get a good yearly profit in dollars
and cents, and grumble because he did not, and at last abandon the
business, asserting that there was no profit in farming, furnishes
another parallel case to the bee-keeper who lets his bees shift for
themselves, and then grumbles because they pay no profit, and at last
abandons the business, asserting that there is no money in bee-keeping.
It being self evident that it is profitable to feed bees, it now
remains to show how to do it with the greatest possible profit.
Receipt for Feed.
To eight pounds of coffee crushed sugar, add two quarts of soft water,
and whites of two eggs; bring to the boiling point over a _slow_ fire,
being very careful not to burn it. Skim off carefully all skum or
sediment that rises, so that the feed, when cool, will be perfectly
clear and about the consistency of new honey.
[Illustration: FEEDER.]
To construct the feeder,[3] get a tin-worker to make you a tin dish,
with perpendicular sides, nine inches square inside, three inches deep,
_without a bottom_. Around the lower edge turn the tin out about one
half inch all round, for the dish to rest on when placed on the hive
for feeding the bees. Around the top of this dish put a stout wire
to keep it in shape Get another tin dish made 8 by 8½ inches square
inside, two and one-half inches deep, with a bottom. Place the smaller
dish inside the larger one, the bottom of the inner dish _even and
level with the lower edge of the outer dish_, which brings the top of
the under dish one-half inch lower than the upper edge of the outer
dish; then when the outer dish is covered, (as it will be in feeding,)
there will be a halt inch space between the cover over the outer dish,
and the top of the inner dish.
[Footnote 3: With the aid of the engraving, there can be no mistake in
constructing the feeder, particularly as its position on the hive is
shown under head of Construction of Controllable Hive, Chapter XVIII.]
Place one of the shorter sides of the inner dish against the inside
of the outer dish, in such a position that there will be a half inch
space all round between the outer and inner dish, except at the side
where you fasten them together; across this one side join them firmly
together with solder; at the bottom near the opposite end solder brass
or tin about one inch wide, across the half-inch space from the bottom
of the inner dish to the edge of the outer dish, to hold the dishes
firmly in place. Near the upper edge of the outer dish solder an some
strips of lead about one inch long, by one-half inch wide, to turn
down over the corner when put on, to hold it in place. Now get out two
pieces of half-inch board, eight inches long, and two and one-half
inches wide; with a thick saw, cut channels crosswise of the pieces,
three-eighths of an inch apart and one-fourth inch deep, the whole
length of the pieces, being careful to run your saw _square across the
piece every time_. Next get out pieces to correspond with the number of
channels, eight inches long, two and one-half inches wide, one-eighth
inch thick, (sawed out so the sides will be rough, to enable the bees
the better to hold fast to them, when taking feed). These pieces are to
stand edgewise in the inner dish. With a sharp knife bring the ends of
the pieces to a thin edge, so they will easily slip into the channels
in the half inch pieces. Put the pieces with the channels, one across
each end of the inner dish, the channels of each facing the inside of
the dish, then slip the ends of your pieces that are one-eighth thick
down through the channels, to the bottom of the inner dish. Before you
put them down into the dish, cut out a small notch, in what will be
the lower end of each piece after it is put down into the dish, so the
food when poured in will flow to all parts of the feeder. The pieces or
slats when all put edgewise in the dish will reach to the bottom and be
on a level with the edges of the _inner dish_.
Now for the cover: get out a piece of board a half-inch thick, nine and
one-fourth inches long, four inches wide. In the centre of this piece,
with a sharp bit, make a one-inch hole; cover the hole with fine wire
cloth, bent a little convex. Put this piece of board over the outer
dish, with wire cloth next to the inside of the dish, (put it across
that end where the dishes are soldered together,) hold it in place by
turning up over it the pieces of lead soldered on near the upper edge
of the outer dish. Cover the bottom of the dish with glass, held in
place in the same manner, by the leads.
Your Feeder is now finished. Set it over the brood section on the top,
at the rear, the wood cover next to the back of the hive, the glass
toward the front. Cover that portion of the brood section of the hive,
not covered with the feeder, with a honey board, so no bees can get up
into the cap of the hive.
Now to feed, pour the feed in at the inch hole, in the cover. The
bees pass from the hive up between the sides of the outer and inner
dishes, in the half-inch space, over the sides of the inner dish, in
the half-inch space between the cover of the outer dish and the edges
of the slats that are placed edgewise in the inner dish, and pass down
_between the slats_, after feed in the inner dish. The hole in the
cover should be kept closed with a cork, to confine the heat to the
hive, exclude insects, etc.
When first commencing to feed a stock, scatter some of the feed over
the tops of the frames in the brood section; also on the sides of the
dishes on each side of the half-inch space leading lo the feed, and on
top of the slats of the feeder, so the bees may find the way to the
feed. After they once learn the road, they will need no coaxing to
induce them to take the feed given them. The first warm days in early
spring, as soon as the bees can fly a few hours in the middle of the
day, mix corn meal with rye meal, equal parts, and set out, in pans or
other shoal dishes, near the hives. The bees will carry this to their
hives in considerable quantities. It it used as a substitute for pollen
or bee bread, and is very essential in forwarding the increase of bees
in early spring. The meal should be fed _very early_ in spring, for as
soon as the bees can collect pollen from the natural sources--trees,
shrubs, flowers, etc., they will not take this meal.
Feeding for Early Swarms.
If you wish early swarms, keep the bees confined in their labors to
the brood section of the hive, or in other words, do not give them
access to the boxes, and commence as early in the spring as the bees
begin to fly in the middle of the day, and feed each stock at evening
about one-half pound of the liquid feed. Continue this till your swarms
issue, then discontinue feeding.
Feeding for Surplus Honey.
If you wish surplus honey instead of swarms, put on your side boxes as
early in the spring as the bees commence brisk work on flowers,--as
a general rule, say a few days before fruit blossoms appear. Feed as
directed for swarms until about ten days before white clover blossoms,
then put on the top boxes, leaving room only for feeder. Then for ten
or twelve days feed them all they will take. Feed at evening. They
will at first, perhaps, take from five to ten pounds every night.
_Crowd them hard_, for the object is now to get every part of the brood
section (not occupied by eggs and brood) filled with honey; and if
possible, crowd the bees into the boxes to commence the work of comb
building, so that during the yield of honey from flowers, you can get
every ounce collected, stored in the boxes.
By _early and judicious feeding_, we have encouraged breeding so that
now our hives are filled, almost to overflowing, with bees, ready to
gather the harvest from the flowers as soon as they commence to yield
honey.
Discontinue feeding, while the yield of honey continues in full supply
from the flowers. At the close of the yield, if you have boxes half
filled or more, feed all they will take up for a few days, or until
your boxes are finished.
Feeding for Winter.
The last of September or first of October feed such stocks as are short
of stores, to winter them. Each stock should have twenty pounds of
honey in the brood section to winter safely. If they have less than
that, feed until they have that quantity, or take a frame of honey
from a stock that has some to spare, and exchange with the one that is
short, and so proceed until all have sufficient stores to winter safely.
In no case take out frames at the close of the season, and leave that
space without a frame, or with an _empty_ frame. At the commencement
of winter every hive must (to winter safely) have its full number
of frames _filled_ with comb, no matter if they are not filled with
_honey_ (if the hive has the required number of pounds,) but each frame
must be filled, or _nearly_ filled with comb, or there is great danger
of loss from sudden changes of temperature through the winter.
In feeding for box honey, it often requires more than one pound of feed
to secure a pound in boxes, for the bees consume some while storing
it, and they often find some place in the hive which, like the crowded
omnibus or street car, is not so full but that additions may be made.
The reader will bear in mind this simple fact: _Bees do not make honey,
they simply collect it._ Honey undergoes no chemical change in the
stomach of the bee.
Several years since my bees had access to several molasses hogsheads,
and the result was, I found _pure molasses_ stored in my hives, in the
same comb with nice white honey. I am satisfied that the bee does not
_make honey_, but _collects it_. My feed is prepared and recommended in
view of this fact, and in perfect accord with all points bearing upon
this subject.
The feed is of the same color as the nicest, white clover honey, and
when put in boxes by the bees with the honey collected from flowers, (I
have no doubt in many instances in alternate layers in the same cell
with honey from flowers,) it cannot be distinguished, either in color
or taste, from honey collected _wholly_ from flowers.
[Illustration]