ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 21 
good surplus in the fall. There are some who recommend setting out 
their bees quite early, some time before there are any flowers to work 
on. This I have tried several times, but never with good results. I’d 
much rather wait until there is something ready for them to gather 
pollen from, as soon as they have a chance to fly. Some may be unable 
to see how this way of taking bees out at night and all at one time 
can in any way prevent spring dwindling. It is this: It prevents a 
part of your colonies from becoming unnaturally strong by receiving 
bees from other colonies that consequently become correspondingly 
weak. Then these strong colonies continue day after day to draw many 
bees from those unfortunate weak colonies until they have but very 
few bees left. I have given this subject much thought and attention; 
and while I will admit it is not the whole cause of spring dwindling I 
am sure it frequently is one of the principal causes of so many of our 
colonies in early spring wasting away to a mere nothing. 
Years ago we set out our bees much earlier than we do now, and 
we frequently gave them rye meal to work on as a substitute for early 
pollen. This practice caused them to leave their hives in search of 
flowers, many days when the air was too cold for them to fly in the 
shade, and so we discontinued it some time ago. We now like to keep 
them in the cellar until the most of that chilly weather is past; then 
when they are set out we do all that we can to hurry them along until 
the summer harvest is gathered. If those of you who have a large 
apiary to set out in one yard will try setting them all out in one night 
I am sure you will be well pleased with the result, especially if you can 
choose the weather so as to have one or two cool cloudy days before 
they attempt to fly. In that way you avoid getting your apiary in that 
demoralized condition that is often done by putting out a part at a 
time. It is easy to make these bad mistakes; and, if done early in 
the season, they many times leave their blighted mark on our apiary 
through nearly the whole summer. 
March, 1906. 
SPRING DWINDLING. 
THREE PRINCIPAL CAUSES, AND THE REMEDIES. 
During the first month after taking bees from their winter quarters 
there are usually more colonies lost than during the other eleven months 
of the year; and it seems really harder to bear the loss then than 
at any other time, for we know that, if we can keep them alive and in 
their hives during those chilly, cloudy, changeable days of early spring, 
we can soon have them good colonies for the coming summer. While 
