CHAPTER XIV 

 SPRING MANAGEMENT 



IN attempting to give the work of the apiary in chron- 

 ological order, it is difficult to decide where to begin. To a 

 large degree, success depends on the results obtained in 

 wintering, so that preparation for winter might be considered 

 the first step in the annual cycle, and practical beekeepers 

 usually so consider it. However, winter is a period during 

 which the beekeeper has little work with his bees, and it is 

 perhaps better to begin the cycle with the first evidences of 

 activity outside the hive. As has been shown, bees do not 

 hibernate, and consequently their early flights are not 

 evidences of an awakening after a period of inactivity. 

 With their first return to the open air in the spring, the bee- 

 keeper knows that the active season with his bees has arrived. 



As will be shown in the chapter on wintering (see also 

 p. 91), bees are often compelled to retain their feces for 

 long periods in winter. This, together with the excessive 

 generation of heat, may deplete the colony, causing condi- 

 tions known as spring dwindling and dysentery, one or both of 

 which may be present. 



It will also be shown later that it is not desirable to manipu- 

 late bees in winter. Brood-rearing may begin during the 

 severe weather of January or February in the North in 

 colonies wintered out of doors, but this can scarcely be 

 considered as an activity of spring. 



With the opening of the earliest spring flowers and the 

 accompanying rise in temperature, the bees venture forth to 

 get the small amounts of nectar and pollen thus provided. 



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