24. a BEES. 
It may be stated positively that it does not pay financially, or in 
any other way, to feed sugar sirup to be stored in sections and sold as 
comb honey. Of course, such things have been tried, but the con- 
sumption of sugar during the storing makes the cost greater than,the 
value of pure floral honey. 
SPRING MANAGEMENT. 
The condition of a col- 
ony of bees in the early 
spring depends largely on 
care in the preceding au- 
tumn and in the method of 
wintering. If the colony 
Fig. 14.—Division-board feeder to be hung in hive in place has wintered well and has 
of frame. ° 
a good prolific queen, pref- 
erably young, the chances are that it will become strong in time to 
store a good surplus when the honey flow comes. 
The bees which come through the winter, reared the previous 
autumn, are old and incapable of much work. As the season opens 
they go out to collect the early nectar and pollen, and also care for 
the brood which hatches from the eggs laid by the queen. The 
amount of brood is at first small, and as the new workers emerge 
they assist in the brood rearing so that the extent of the brood can 
be gradually increased un- 
til it reaches the maximum 
at the beginning of the 
summer. The old bees die 
off rapidly. 
If brood rearing does not 
continue late in the fall, so 
that the colony goes into 
winter with a large per- 
centage of young bees, the 
old bees may die off in the 
spring faster than they 
are replaced by emerging 
brood. This is known as 
“spring dwindling.” <A 
remedy for this may be ap- 
plied by feeding, if necessary, the autumn before, or keeping up brood 
rearing by some other means as late as possible. 
If spring dwindling begins, however, it can be diminished somewhat 
by keeping the colony warm and by stimulative feeding, so that all 
the energy of the old bees may be put to the best advantage in rearing 
397 
Fig. 15.—Feeder set in coilar under hive body. 
