134 THE BEE-KEEPERS REVIEW 



and the plan of using the same in the early spring, he says, ''Feed 

 a little each day until fruit bloom, and between fruit bloom and 

 clover you will get a crop. No feed and the crop will not bother 

 you." Certainly that is clear-cut and concise enough for anyone. 



While it is generelly accepted as a fact that the Review is mainly 

 for specialists in beekeeping, yet I think it is a pretty good journal 

 for beginners, too, and like as not a number of this class are on 

 the subscription list of the paper. On account of this class. I am 

 prompted to come to their rescue, and say that it is quite possible 

 to get a crop in most localities I am familiar with, without going to 

 all the trouble and expense of feeding colonies from the time they 

 are set out till fruit bloom — after that date ( fruit bloom) feeding 

 is pretty good practice in most cases, but not ahi'ays necessary to 

 secure a crop — circumstances as to season and locality being the 

 deciding factors in the matter as to feed or not to feed. ^lore than 

 that, there are a number of us so foolish as to believe that ca'iy 

 spring feeding is actually detrimental to the bees, and we would not 

 let anyone do the work if they supplied the sugar free and work 

 ditto. 



Without going into detail on this question, a few questions as 

 to why it should l)e necessary to feed colonies in the early spring 

 may not be out of order. Given a good, prolific queen in the hive, 

 abundance of good stores, and the colony having wintered in good 

 condition, what can stimulating by feeding do, to better the condi- 

 tion of said colony during the latter part of March, and all of April, 

 owing to the very uncertain weather, changing from cold to warm 

 and vice versa — this kind of weather often continuing during first 

 week of May? Is it not the general experience that colonies at that 

 time do not suffer for want of brood, but rather from want of bees 

 to take care of the brood there may be in the hives? Certainly that 

 has been my experience with the bees 1 have, and it has never been 

 any trouble to get enough brood in the hives in the early spring 

 when we have so much bad weather as a rule. Of course, I admit 

 that the feeding will sometimes stimulate the queen to lay more 

 eggs than she would if no feed was given, but when a cold snap 

 came and all the extended circles of the brood caused by this feeding 

 would perish, where was the gain? 



We hear much of spring dwindling, and I would like to ask if 

 any bee-keeper ever found a colony going back in the early spring 

 because the queen was not laving enough. What is the actual con- 

 dition found in a colony that is rapidly fading away by this com- 

 plaint? Instead of the queen not laying fast enough, it is always 

 found that there are not bees enough to care for what eggs the 

 queen does lay, and when they finally dwindle out altogether, it is 

 found that the queen to the last has been laying eggs, seemingly 



