42 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING 



strong at an unusually early date if any , surplus 

 is to • be secured. The amount of food given 

 depends to a great extent on the quantity of 

 stores with which the bees went into winter quar- 

 ters, for it is neither necessary nor desirable to 

 give fresh food until most of last year's stores 

 are consumed, and if the bees are heavily fed 

 in autumn it often happens that no fresh food is 

 required. 1 



The theory of spring feeding is this. Bees 

 if left alone and with a sufficiency of stores will 

 progress at their normal rate, which means that 

 the hive will be at its best about the middle of 

 June, when swarming will be in full swing. Now 

 for the majority of districts, where the main honey 

 flow is riot due until then, true stimulative feed- 

 ing is not required. All that is necessary is to 

 see that there is always plenty of food in the hive, 

 especially if bad wqather intervenes in May and 

 June. The districts that require stimulative feed- 

 ing, however, have their main honey, flow con- 

 siderably earlier thari the above date, so early that 

 if left alone the bees would be much too weak 

 to be effective, so the owners of bees in such dis- 

 tricts must stimulate them. 



The third kind of "feeding is feeding that must 

 be done at times, irrespective of weather or season, 

 if the bees are to be kept alive. Of course in 



t 



many, cases it is negligence or bad management, 

 that calls for this kind of feeding, but in other 



