180 THE PBACTICAL BEE GUIDE. 



Artificial pollen should also be given where a natural supply 

 is wanting. (192). 



314. Summer Feeding. — Feeding in summer becomes neces- 

 sary during a spell of bad weather, and is often desirable 

 between the early honey flow from fruit trees and the main 

 flow from clover, and also between the latter and the heather 

 flow. Swarms should be fed for a few nights to the extent 

 of half a pint of honey or syrup per night, to assist them in 

 drawing out foundation into comb, and to prevent the danger 

 of hunger, resulting in the cessation of breeding, the throwing 

 out of immature brood, and the dwindling of the swarm. But, 

 swarms to which have been transferred tlie supers from the 

 parent stocks (240) do not generally require feeding, and should 

 not be fed, while the supers are on, except with honey (312). 

 When the honey flow ceases and supers have been removed 

 (272), liquid food may be given again, and this may be con- 

 tinued, to the extent of about half a tumblerful per night, until 

 the middle of September. As a result, breeding will be con- 

 tinued uninterruptedly, and a large supply of young bees will 

 be reared to maintain the colony in the winter, and to begin 

 work in the spring (202). Syrup for summer feeding is made 

 similar to that used in spring (Recipe 321). In very bad 

 seasons, when the bees cannot procure natural, pollen, flour 

 candy will greatly assist breeding in the hive (Recipe 324). 



315. Autumn Feeding.— Autumn feeding begins in the 

 middle of September, and is intended to supply sufficient food 

 to carry the stocks through the winter and early spring, if there 

 is not an adequate quantity of honey in their combs. It should 

 be given warm, every evening, and as rapidly as the bees 

 can be induced to take it down, so that it may be stored and 

 sealed in the combs before cold weather arriving renders the 

 capping of the cells impossible (377). Unsealed stores are 

 liable to ferment, and such food is highly injurious to bees 

 (330). The syrup should be thicker than that used earlier in 

 the year, and may be made according to the directions given 

 later on (Recipe 322). A colony, to winter safely, should have, 

 at least, solbs. of sealed stores. Six standard frames (97), 

 well filled, will suffice, and no strong colony should be con- 

 sidered safe with less. A Dutchman, when asked— "How 



much beer is enough for a man ? " is said to have replied " Too 



mush peer is shust enough." More accurately it may be said 

 that too much food is just enough for bees in winter. As the 

 object of autumn feeding is, not to encourage breeding, but 

 to rapidly supply stores for winter, the feeders used in spring 

 and summer are not invariably suitable in autumn. (123-125). 

 In an emergency, when there is not time for supplying autumn 



