116 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



In the spring and summer months, when the weather 

 is unfavourable, constant feeding hy small quantities is 

 the better way, because it keeps hives full of glee ; but in 

 antumn the more speedily it is done the better. By giv- 

 ing the food rapidly, 3 or 4 lb. a-day, the bees store most 

 of it up, and then settle down into the quiet of winter 

 life. If autumn feeding be continued for days or weeks, 

 the bees are kept in a state of excitement, and may con- 

 sume as much as they store up ; and moreover, may be 

 induced to commence breeding at an untimely season. 



Sometimes hives have not been fed enough at the 

 proper time in autumn (September), and the bees in them 

 may be found in the dead of winter nearly starved to 

 death, so cold and hungry that they will not leave their 

 combs for food. What should be done to save them t 

 Take them into a warm room or hothouse for an hour, and 

 pour amongst them a very little warm syrup, which wiU 

 revive them in a few minutes. I say " a very little " 

 syrup, for it is not wise to wet much comb with syrup in 

 winter. Of course the door of the hive should be closed 

 while it is in the house, unless the place be in complete 

 darkness. 



The practice of exposing refuse honey, or hives and 

 combs wet with honey, to aU the bees in a garden or 

 neighbourhood, cannot be too strongly condemned. 

 Honey thus given to bees is hke blood to a tiger ; they 

 ■will have more, and make earnest attempts to rob their 

 neighbours. And there is great danger of making bees of 

 different hives too familial- with one another in a mixed 

 congregation thus brought together. Bees should be fed 

 at home, and never tempted to come in contact with 

 those of another family. 



In presenting refuse honey or combs wet with honey 

 to a hive, we put it in an empty hive, and place over it 

 a board with nine holes braced through it. At night the 



