324> FOOD DISEASES. 



give every hive, whether weak or strong, a certain 

 quantity of food in the spring. It cheers and en- 

 courages the bees at the outset of their labours, and 

 it is a fact well ascertained, that a hive which has 

 been fed in the spring will swarm sooner than one 

 which has not been fed. This alone is no trifling 

 consideration, and the expense is so small, and the 

 trouble so little, that to neglect it is highly censurable. 

 The cottagers, however, adopt in general a most 

 erroneous method of feeding their bees, which consists 

 in putting a small quantity of coarse brown sugar 

 into a narrow wooden trough, which is put into the 

 hive at the entrance, and this is what they ignorantly 

 call feeding their bees. A hive may be fed either 

 exteriorly or interiorly ; the latter method is to be 

 preferred, as no risk is thereby run of an attack from 

 other hives, which is too often the case when the 

 former is adopted. Honey is naturally the best food 

 for bees, but as a substitute, boil a pound of coarse 

 sugar in three pints of ale let it stand till cold, then 

 pour a portion of it into a plate, and placing some 

 straws over, deposit it on a fine day in the immediate 

 vicinity of the apiary, and the bees will soon convey 

 the whole of it into their respective hives. This may 

 be called general feeding, as the whole apiary par- 

 takes of the food ; but in private feeding, the plate 

 should be put into the hive at night, carefully closing 

 the entrance, either with the tin sliders, or with any 

 substance which may be conveniently at hand. On 

 the following morning the whole of the liquid will 

 have been conveyed into the cells, and the plate must 

 be taken away. If a little salt be mixed with the ale 



