26 BEES. 
FEEDING. 
During spring manipulations, in preparing bees for winter, and at 
other times it may be necessary to feed bees for stimulation or to 
provide stores. Honey from an unknown source should never be used, for 
fear of introducing disease, and sirup made of granulated sugar is 
cheapest and best for this purpose. The cheaper grades of sugar or 
molasses should never be used for winter stores. The proportion of 
sugar to water depends on the season and the purpose of the feeding. 
For stimulation a proportion of one-fourth to one-third sugar by 
volume is enough, and for fall feeding, especially if rather late, a solu- 
tion containing as much sugar as it will hold when cold is best. There 
seems to be little advantage in boiling the sirup. Tartaric acid in 
small quantity may be added for the purpose of changing part of the 
cane sugar to invert sugar, thus retarding granulation. The medi- 
cation of sirup as a preventive or cure of brood disease is often prac- 
ticed, but it has not been shown that such a procedure is of any value. 
If honey is fed, it should be diluted somewhat, the amount of dilution 
depending on the season. If robbing is likely to occur, feeding should 
be done in the evening. 
Numerous feeders are on the market, adapted for different purposes 
and methods of manipulation (figs. 17, 18, 19). A simple feeder can 
be made of a tin pan filled with excelsior or shavings (fig. 20). This 
is filled with sirup and placed on top of the frames in a super or hive 
body. It is advisable to lean pieces of wood on the pan as runways 
for the bees, and to attract them first to the sirup, either by mixing 
in a little honey or by spilling a little sirup over the frames and sticks. 
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 colony of bees in the early spring depends 
largely upon the care given the bees the preceding autumn and in 
the method of wintering. If the colony has wintered well and has 
a good prolific queen, preferably 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. 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 
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