300 FEEDING. 



taking combs having stores from other hives and plac- 

 ing the empty combs in their stead. This plan of 

 equalizing will benefit both hives, if properly done. 



There are times in March, April and May, when 

 bees gather but little honey and need to be fed. 

 They can gather pollen in abundance at such times. 

 And when supplied with sweets, they work with re- 

 newed energy. 



As soon as the flowers fail on the plains, which, in 

 most places, is late in May or early in June, pastur- 

 age will be scarce for the balance of the year, except 

 along streams, on wet lands, and in the mountains. 

 Then feeding should commence in quantities just suffi- 

 cient to cause them to keep their combs full of brood, 

 without allowing their stores to diminish. Their 

 wants being regularly supplied, they rear very large 

 numbers of young, so that at the time the Cephal- 

 anthus blooms, there is ample force to gather and 

 store large quantities of the best honey of the season. 

 Where this bush abounds, cease to feed about one 

 week previous to the time it comes into bloom, which 

 is about the first of July. 



In sections of country where the pasturage declines 

 in June, feeding will have to be resorted to at inter- 

 vals during the remainder of the summer, or they 

 will have to be transported to where pasture abounds. 



CONDITIONS REQUIRING IT. 



The first requisite is a "fertile queen, together with 

 a sufficiently numerous swarm of bees to defend them- 

 selves. 



