The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-01-31
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FEEDING OF BEES.
Feeding Back Extracted Honey For the
Completion of Unfinished SectiOns

Feeding Back Extracted Honey For the
Completion Of Unfinished Sections.
No one method will prove successful
with every bee man. Some localities
vary IN we'll as methods Of management.
Following are extracts from the paper
of Vermont beekeeper who works en-.
tirely for comb honey. His paper was
read at the late beekeepers' convention
and reported by The American Bee
Journal. The subject is profitable
Feeding of Bees" The writer says:
Until within five years my success in
feeding back was somewhat varied, but
have finally made it profitable to feed
by extracting from portion of my un-
finished sections and feeding the honey
thus taken to colonies especially pre-.
pared for doing the work Of completing
sections. thus transferring the honey
from portion of the unstable sections
to another like portion, thereby making
the latter portion marketable, with no
expense except my own labor Of ex-
tracting and feeding. l find that the
shrinkage by the transfer of the honey
from one set of sections to the other is
very slight. The greatest loss is due to
the process of extracting, or, in other
words, to the adherence of honey to the
extractor and other receptacles
first prepare the colony by filling
the brood chamber with combs we'll
filled with brood Or sealed honey or
both. The unfinished sections are then
placed on the hive, two, three or four
tiers high, according to the strength of
the colony. Directly on these sections I
place larger feeder capable of holding
10 pounds of honey. The honey is first
diluted with warm water, and then
poured into the feeder just at night for
the first and if all works we'll it will
need reflling in the morning. I find for
the best results the honey should be a
little thicker than 1t sometimes is when
first gathered, for if fed too thin the
sections when capped will have watery
appearance, while, on the other hand,
if fed too thick the work will progress
slowly, and the oappings will be more
or less soiled. Therefore, in my oase
when l misjudge the duration Of the
honey flow and unfortunately put Oh
more sections than the bees are able to
finish I find it necessary to do some ex-
ira work, such as extracting and feed
ing back. In this find it more profit
able than to carry over these unfinished
sections Or to soil the honey in the
liquid form.
But the most satisfactory and profit
able feeding with which have had ex
perience is spring and summer feeding
-stimulative feeding, so called-but
more especially summer feeding. Early
i'll the season Il mean the breeding sea-
SOM the apiarist should see to it that
the been are we'll provided with stores
near the brood. This may be honey or
sugar sirup. Our colonies should never
want for ample supplies at this season.
In order to avoid this l aim to feed
enough to keep supply of uncapped
honey in the combs until the bees com.
mence, to gather honey. If there is an
interval at any time during the honey
season between any of the sources from
which we get our surplus, as there usu-
ally is between fruit bloom and raspber-
ries and between raspberries and clover,
feed moderately that the brood combs
may be kept we'll filled, that there may
be no vacancy in the brood combs to be-
Allied with the next flow Of honey. The
object is to keep the brood combs con-
,tantly filed with either brood or honey,
70 that all the white honey gathered
may be stored in tie sections. If this
practice is kept up judioiously through
he honey season, we are sure to catch
Ill the honey in the sections, and later
IN we can transfer it to our purses in
,reatly reduced form.