52 BEES FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 



Great care must be taken to cover up the feeder very warmly, 

 so that no heat may escape from the hive. Tlie progress that 

 a stock thus stimulated will make in five or six wrecks is 

 amazing. The syrup used for stimulation should be thin, 

 made with 3 lbs. of sugar to a quart of water, one tablespoonful 



Fig. 34. — Stimiilative Feeder. 



of vinegar and half a teaspoonful of salt being added to 

 every quart of water. 



A superior form of stimulative feeder, in which the amount 

 of syrup taken by the bees may be regulated is shown in 

 fig. 49, page 105. 



Supposing that at the beginning of March a hive still has 

 abundance of stores left over from the winter, instead of 

 feeding such a hive, we may with a sharp knife uncap some of 

 the honey on the outer combs with great advantage ; the bees 

 will then carry the honey to the brood nest and the effect will 

 be to stimulate brood rearing : a good patch of honey should 

 be unsealed on a warm day about once a week, but care must 

 be taken to commence feeding w^ith syrup before the bees run 

 at all short of stores, otherwise a seiious check will be given 

 to the production of brood, as the far-sighted bees, foreseeing 

 a scarcity of food, will refuse to add to the number of their 

 population when the means of supporting them runs low. 



Spreading the Brood. 



When the bees appear daily getting stronger from the 

 increasing quantities of brood hatching out, we may " spread 



