Spring Management 263 



this new brood is well started, the manipulation may be 

 repeated and still more eggs will be laid. This is attractive 

 in theory but in practice is attended with danger. The 

 bees may not attempt to cover both portions of the divided 

 brood, resulting in loss, or, because of exceptionally cold 

 weather, they may contract the cluster and leave the out- 

 side brood to die. The beginner should by all means leave 

 the amount of brood to be determined by the bees, confining 

 his work to the supplying of protection, stores and room 

 for the expansion of the brood. 



If the giving of abundant protection, stores and room 

 for the maximum advantageous expansion of the brood will 

 cause the colony, from its own instinct, to reach its maximum 

 strength in time for the storage of the crop, then additional 

 manipulations in stimulative feeding and in spreading of the 

 brood, even though they may do no harm, are non-essential. 

 They are, therefore, to be condemned for the commercial 

 apiary. If the favorable conditions enumerated do not 

 bring the necessary strength of colony and if stimulative 

 feeding will, then these manipulations are justifiable. If 

 the period for brood-rearing previous to the beginning of 

 the honey-flow is short, rapid brood-rearing becomes more 

 important. This is usually the case in northern localities. 

 It is safe to say, however, that stimulative feeding and spread- 

 ing of the brood should not be practiced early in the spring but 

 should be confined to a period of six or eight weeks just previ- 

 ous to the particular honey-flow for which the beekeeper is 

 building up his colonies. If the main crop is in late summer, 

 the beekeeper need not force his bees in the spring. In some 

 localities, the season is made up of a series of honey-flows of 

 about equal importance. If there are long intervals between 

 honey-flows, the beekeeper must see that brood-rearing is at 

 its best during a period of six or eight weeks before each flow. 



Substitutes for pollen. 



Beekeepers have repeatedly noticed that during a short- 

 age in the supply of pollen, bees will pack meal or sawdust 



