90 PLEA8UBABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



honey-flow, has been almost wholly taken into supers 

 which the bee-keeper removes, the small amount of 

 food given after the honey -flow, to induce further egg- 

 laying, wiU not enable the bees to store sufficient for 

 winter use, and therefore whatever further supply is 

 needed must be given in September. 



What to Feed. 



This is a very important matter, and requires much 

 more attention than is generally supposed. Old- 

 fashioned bee-keepers have thought a mixture of sugar 

 and beer a useful compound, but the feeding of bees 

 upon such stuff, and during winter, is calculated, 

 by causing dysentery, to do them more harm than 

 good. 



The natural food of bees is composed of honey and 

 pollen, which may be termed heat and force producers. 

 Honey is the carbonaceous, heat-giving and fat-forming, 

 and pollen is the nitrogenous element necessary as 

 a force producer and tissue former. The former is the 

 food upon which the bees exist during the winter, when 

 they are in a semi-dormant or inactive state. But as 

 soon as spring work commences pollen is needed, as it 

 is an essential part of the food given to the grubs, and 

 required by the bees themselves when their arduous 

 work is being performed. When, for any reason, 

 either of these foods, or both, run short, the assistance 

 of the bee-keeper is required, and not just as it were 

 at the last gasp, when it is a matter of life and death 

 with the bees, for if a stock is allowed to get into that 

 condition, it is more than probable that though kind 



