Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1875 — Spring Feeding of Bees. [ARTICLE]

Spring Feeding of Bees.

Swarms that are weak must be fed. Honey is best; but a tolerably-thick sirup, made of good sugar, is good enough. The ingenuity of the’ beekeeper will easily suggest a flask bored with holes- to support the bees and through "which they may eat. If the bees have plenty of store, of course they need not be fed honey; but they should always be supplied with plenty of rye meal, and the feeding of this should be continued until bees can get plenty of pollen outside; for, after blossom time, they will not require, nor indeed will they eat, this artificial food. Oat meal and rye meal mixed are probably preferable to rye meal alone. If supplied, the bee-keeper will find the hives will contain bread and young bees far sooner and in greater numbers than if feeding is withheld. If either honey or meal is fed outside means m Ist be taken to prevent waste from the weather or other causes. It must be fed in some way when light may be admitted, and yet in such manner that the bees "will have no difficulty in finding the entrance and exit. It is always preferable, however, to feed either honey or meal in the hive if possible; and this is easy enough where modern hives are used.—Oft icago —The cow has not hitherto been suspected of much acuteness of instinct or liveliness of affection, but an incident developed at the Petty Sessions held recently in ah English town tends to snow that this mild, dull animal is sometimes endowed with considerable Reeling and sagacity. In the case in question a farmer’s wife was assaulted by her husband in a field where was a cow that the woman had greatly petted. On seeing the man beating his wife, tearing her hair and clothes, and otherwise maltreating her, the cow came charging up the field, and attacked the man with such ferocity that he was glad to retreat summarily. The cow then took up a defensive position by the woman’s side, and stood perfectly still while the latter struggled to her feet and supported herself by leaning on its flank until she had sufficiently recovered to take refuge from her husband in flight. It may. be taken as additional evidence of the uncommon good sense of the cow that it had always manifested a strong antipathy to the brute who could descend so low as to beat his wife. , ?