FEEDING PRINCIPLES 41 



good! bee-keeping, during the honey, season proper 

 little if any honey can be stored in the brood- 

 nest owing to the management. The apiarist sees 

 to it that the brood-combs are a solid mass of 

 brood, and takes care there is a queen present 

 who will keep them so. What honey is gathered 

 therefore goes into the supers, which are taken 

 off at the end of the regular honey flow, usually 

 about the end of July. After that time what the 

 bees gather they are allowed to keep. If there 

 is a late flow to enable them to fill their depleted 

 exchequer, well and good; if there is not, then 

 they must be fed. 



Again, to go to the other extreme, bad bee- 

 keepers frequently have to do but little autumn 

 feeding, and that is owing to the utter badness of 

 their methods. These bee-keepers have many of 

 their hives with comparatively worthless queens in 

 possession, quite incapable of utilizing more than 

 half of the brood-chamber for breeding purposes. 

 Consequently the most of the early honey gathered 

 is stored in the brood-chamber instead of in the 

 supers, for be it noted that bees will never store 

 in the supers while there is space in the brood- 

 nest. 



Spring feeding is food supplied for the purpose 

 of inducing the bees to breed faster than they 

 otherwise would, and is most important and even 

 necessary in the case of apiaries situated in early 

 fruit-growing districts, where bees must be, very, 



