294 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



from time to time as needed, also to add water as needed, 

 than it is to apportion the smaller amounts to a number 

 of colonies. No great matter if too much or too little 

 of one or the other is present ; the thing will regulate it- 

 self. For with cold water there is no danger of the fee 1 

 being too thick, and all the harm of too large a propor- 

 tion of sugar is that the bees will have to wait for more 

 water when it is too dr}' to give down. On the other 

 hand, they will continue taking it down when it is much 

 thinner than half-and-half, and perhaps it is all the better 

 manipulated when very thin. 



Perhaps it would do as well to feed as described 

 under wholesale feeding in spring, but in that case I 

 should want the feed quite thin, and there would be more 

 danger from robbers, and more danger of having thin 

 feed left in the feeders to sour. 



DIFFICULTY IX DECIDING ABOUT STORESV 



It is not an easy thing to determine just what 

 amount of stores is needed to carry a colony through to 

 the next harvest. Some colonies use more than others 

 under apparently the same conditions. Experience will 

 enable one to judge fairly well by inspection as to the 

 amount of stores present, but one can be more exact 

 about it by actual weighing. Besides, with proper con- 

 veniences for it, the weighing takes less time. But two 

 colonies may weigh exactly the same, and one may have 

 .abundance and the other may starve, because, although 

 weighing the same, one had much more honey than the 

 other. One had much pollen, the other little. Or, the 

 combs of one were new, and the combs of the other very 

 old and heavy. The only safe way is to have all so heavy 

 that under any and all circumstances there will be no 

 danger. So we aim to have each hive with its contents, 

 its cover, and its bottom-board, weigh as much as fifty 

 pounds. Some will weigh so much more than this that 

 hefting \\\\\ show that there is no need of weighing. Even 



