25 



VI. SPEING FEEDING OP BEES. 



Next in magnitude to the losses of bees which result from inattention 

 to disease are those which occur in the spring months through starvation. 

 Few but experienced beekeepers and those who sufier financially from 

 losses realise how readily the food-supply may become exhausted after 

 breeding is in full swing in spring. In my rounds hitherto I have found 

 it a general complaint that numbers of colonies have died off in the spring. 

 The owners did not know the cause, and when starvation was suggested 

 they were quite surprised, as they "had left plenty of food in the hive 

 the previous season," and it had never occurred to them that the supply 

 might run short. 



THE CAUSE OF STARVATION. 



Given a fair supply of stores in late autumn, when fixing the bees up 

 for winter, a colony will use comparativelj' little during the winter 

 months, but as soon as breeding begins in the latter part of July or early 

 August the stores are largely drawn upon for feeding the brood, and 

 unless nectar can be gathered to help them out, the stores will rapidly 

 diminish. As a rule willows and other spring forage afiord a good 

 supply in fine weather, but the weather is frequently far from fine at 

 that time — generally unsettled, and against the bees securing nectar. 

 Take a case, for example, whore the bees have come out, of winter 

 quarters with a fair supply of food in the hive, the weather fine, and 

 some nectar is being brought in from the fields. Under these conditions, 

 where there is a good queen, breeding will go ahead very rapidly, and 

 in a short time there will be a big lot of brood to feed, and a large 

 quantity of food needed. If at this time bad weather should set in 

 and last for several days, preventing the bees gathering nectar, probably 

 within a week pretty nearly all the reserve stores within the hive will 

 be used up, and if the bees are not seen to before they arrive at this 

 stage they will probably die of starvation. This is not a fancifully 

 drawn case, but a real practical one, and shows just how such large losses 

 occur in spring. 



These remarks apply, but in a vastly less degree, to other seasons of 

 the year. 



