FEEDING. 109 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



FEEDING. 



In bee-keeping, as in many other things, it is not all 

 honey and sunshine. Stings and venom-bags are placed 

 side by side with honey-bags in the bodies of these 

 industrious creatures. Cold rainy seasons come some- 

 times ; and when they do come, bees have to be fed 

 pretty constantly. One year, well remembered by some 

 apiarians, the best hives, though well attended, never 

 rose in weight beyond 22 lb. each. They were near 

 starvation-point the whole of the summer. In such 

 seasons the management of bees is attended with anxiety, 

 disappointment, and loss. Part of the profits of former 

 years have to be spent on sugar to keep them alive. In 

 two noticeable years, bees had to be fed from April to 

 August, when the weather changed, and became so favour- 

 able for honey-gathering, that strong hives rose rapidly 

 in weight to 70 and 80 lb. It is rather an unfortunate 

 circumstance for a working man to commence bee-keeping 

 in an unfavourable season. His bees must be fed again 

 and again ; and his wife does not hke to see so great a 

 waste of sugar, and may grumble sorely about it. To put 

 an end to such loss and dissatisfaction, he sells his bees 

 at a sacrifice. Such failures we have seen with sorrow. 

 We should be glad if any words of ours contribute in the 

 smallest degree to encourage all beginners to go forward, 

 even if one bad season succeed another. Success is 

 certain to the persevering. During the last fifteen years 

 we have had far more favourable seasons for honey- 

 gathering than unfavourable ones. In our native village 

 in Lanarkshire the profits of bee-keeping in 1864 were 



