about £4 per hive; in 1865, about £3; in 1866, about £2; in 1867, nothing; in 1868, between £3 and £4; and in 1869, about £3. Our own profits altogether from 1870 to 1874* from bee-keeping are upwards of £220, after deducting an annual expenditure of 10s. per hive. But years unfavourable for honey - collecting may be expected; and when they come, our bees will require attention and feeding. We do not care much how bees are fed, so that they get enough. He is the best bee As large hives, well populated, gather more honey in fine weather than small ones, it should be borne in mind that they consume more in rainy weather. Strong hives lose 1 lb. in weight during the night in summer, and no one can tell how much food is consumed during the day when the bees are at work. In a large hive there are probably upwards of 50,000 bees, and about the same. number in embryo in their cells. Both bees and brood need food, and a great deal of it. master who feeds his stock liberally and judiciously in rainy summers, for he will receive a return for all his attention and liberality. If bees be well fed they remain strong and healthy—the hum of prosperity and contentment is kept up-breeding goes on-thousands are added to the community; and if fine weather come, they will gather twice or thrice as much honey as those that have been barely kept alive. Bees that are kept on the point of starvation instinctively cast out their young, and wisely refuse to set eggs. Their combs become empty of brood; their numbers decrease; their bankruptcy blights them for a month, if not for a whole season. We speak of stock-hives in the months of April, May, and June. Look at swarms lately hived. Every natural swarm can live three days on the food it takes from the mother hive. The bees of artificial swarms, being hurried out of * Four of these five seasons were considered unfavourable. their mother hives, have not all filled their bags so well as those of natural swarms. If rainy weather overtake these young swarms, and continue some days, they will starve if not fed. Thousands of young swarms are ruined for want of feeding after being put into empty hives. If they do not die right out, they never recover from the blight and blast of hunger then undergone. We have known swarms starved out of their hives. Having made a few pieces of comb, and being without brood, no eggs having been set in them, the bees, from sheer want, cast themselves on the wide world. These are called "hunger-swarms," and their name has a very painful significance. But if swarms are well and liberally fed in rainy weather, after being hived, they rapidly build combs, and these combs are as rapidly filled with eggs from pregnant queens. A few pounds of sugar given to a swarm will enable it to build combs to its own circumference and size; and these combs, as we have seen, will soon be filled with brood, which will quickly come to perfection, and thus greatly add to the strength of the community. During the cotton panic, and at other times when no work was going on, some of the wealthy millowners of Lancashire kept their machinery in order, and even enlarged their premises; so that when the dark day had passed away, and the sun of a brighter sky fell upon them, they found themselves in possession of greater powers for active and successful work. So the skilful bee-master is not inattentive to the machinery and millhands of his factories when they are not working “full time." Idleness in a bee-hive is often the mother of mischief. When weather forbids bees leaving their hives, it is a stroke of good policy to give them something to do indoors. A few pounds of sugar (made into syrup), wisely administered, keeps up the hum of health and prosperity, promotes breeding, and prevents collapse and disaster. Often when feeding is not absolutely necessary, when there is plenty of honey in a hive, a little sugar given to it in dull weather is of great service in keeping up its temperature, and in promoting the laying and hatching of eggs. Loaf or refined sugar boiled in pure water, at the rate of one pound of sugar to one imperial pint of water, is excellent food for bees. No artificial food is so good for them as this; indeed it is better for them than heatherhoney. The mortality of bees fed on heather-honey is greater in winter than when fed on pure sugar-and-water, mixed and boiled as described above. Flower-honey, as it is termed in Scotland, or clover-honey, is the best and healthiest food for bees; and, strange as it may appear, 10 or 11 lb. of this honey lasts or feeds a hive as long as 15 lb. of heather-honey. Brown sugar is relaxing, and should not be given to bees as winter food. On the score of cheapness it is often used in summer, and with safety. White soft sugar, now sold at 31d. per lb., is nearly as good as loaf-sugar for feeding bees. Some old-fashioned gentlemen, doubtless fond of a glass of good ale themselves, like to give their bees sugar-andale instead of sugar-and-water; and some are so kind as to give them wine mixed with sugar. Pure water mixed with the sugar is better for bees than either ale or wine. The elephant grows strong on water, the ox fattens on water, the horse does its work on water, and bees want nothing better. In mixing sugar and water for bees, it is desirable to present it to them sweet enough, and yet not too thick and sticky. We have mentioned one pint of water to one pound weight of sugar-that is, nearly weight for weight. We wish to make ourselves well understood here; for the English and Scotch pints are very different. England holds 4 gills; The imperial pint - measure of the Scotch one holds 16 gills. shire many people call half a pint "a gill." It is the English or imperial pint of water which we use with one pound of sugar. One pound of each, slightly boiled, makes excellent syrup for bees. It is about the same thickness or substance as honey when first gathered from flowers. There are various ways and appliances for feeding bees. Many amateur bee-keepers feed from the tops of their hives. It is a very good plan. A kind of tin trough or cylinder, with a wooden float full of holes, is used for this purpose. The lid on the top of the hive is removed, and this cylinder, filled with syrup, is placed there. The bees speedily find their way to the syrup, and carry it down into the hive. This system prevents strange bees from getting the syrup. The following are the only instruments we have ever used in feeding, all of which are cheap, simple, and excellent. The trough of our feeding-board is 11 inches wide, 11 inch deep, and holds 3 quarts or 6 lb. of syrup. It is a very useful instrument, and can be refilled without touching the hive or troubling the bees. For feeding young swarms, or giving large quantities to a hive, it is far superior to anything of the kind we have ever seen. In the plate of this feeding-board it will be observed that there are cross pieces of wood in the trough for the convenience of the bees getting at the liquid. We think this is an improvement on ours, which is used without them; but then we have to use chips of wood to keep the bees from drowning. We have never known a bee lose its life in the trough of our feeding-board. The feeding-cistern holds about 3 pints of syrup, and is handy. When it is used, the board of the hive must be placed very level, so that the liquid runs to the far H end of the trough attached. The trough is about threeeighths of an inch deep and 12 inches long. The opening between the trough and cistern must be less in height than the edges of the trough, in order to prevent the syrup from running over, and the bees from going into the cistern. As the bees empty the trough, the cistern fills it. It is generally used at nights-i.e., when bees are not flying about. The feeding-trough is an exceedingly handy thing. It is used for giving syrup in small quantities. It holds about a gill, but one could be made to hold more or less. A single troughful of sugar-and-water, costing about one halfpenny, given to a hive daily in dull weather, has a wonderful influence for good, even if the hive is not hungry. For the feeding of bees in spring this little trough is unsurpassed for excellence. |