FEEDING. 207 



running too freely, if a very warm day succeed a cold 

 night, as the air in the bottle will expand too rapidly 

 from the heat, and force out the syrup, to the immi- 

 nent danger of the bees. 



But, it is not only starving or much impoverished 

 stocks which may be advantageously supplied with 

 food early in the spring. If left to themselves, the 

 wise insects will not promote breeding, till they can 

 see their way to a constant in-flow of new nourish- 

 ment for the rearing of the young. If, then, the 

 queen is encouraged to lay, by an artificial supply, 

 she will begin depositing her eggs much earlier than 

 she otherwise would. Moreover, if the mass of the 

 population are induced to remain at home, instead of 

 going out for honey and pollen, the warmth of the 

 hive will be better maintained, and the developing 

 young will have more attendants about them. The 

 most experienced apiarians, therefore, strongly re- 

 commend careful spring feeding; and one point in 

 the carefulness is the constancy of the supply once 

 begun, unless there is plenty of honey in the hive. 

 In cases where this precaution is overlooked, the 

 hungry workers will consume hundreds of newly-laid 

 eggs, and will drag the young larvae from the cells, 

 thinking that their coming to maturity would involve 

 a general starvation. On the other hand, it is neces- 

 sary to see that no storage is going on in the brood 

 part of the combs, through too liberal feeding. In 

 points of this kind experience is the best teacher, 

 and here the skilfulness of the bee-master is shown. 

 Another matter of great importance in spring 

 feeding, is to see that the syrup supplied is not too 

 thin, otherwise there will be danger of dysentery. 



