of milk food by young workers. A supply of pollen in the hive is quite as im- 

 portant at this time as honey. 



An equally important factor for the upbuilding of the colony is the proper^ 

 feeding of the larva. This depends on the same conditions as the feeding of the, 

 queen, and if neglected would cause greater loss, as the queen can go about and 

 look for food in the hive, but each larva remains in its cell waiting for food to be 

 brought, and a lack of attention at the right time may result in starved brood or 

 workers without their share of vitality. 



Much as has been said and written on stimulative feeding to induce the queen 

 to lay in the spring during the last fifty years or more, the late Wm. McEvoy, 

 the first apiary inspector of Ontario, is about the only one to mention the im- 

 portance of having the brood well fed. In the Annual Report of the Ontario 

 Beekeepers' Association for 1892, he is reported as follows : — 



"Between fruit l)loom and clover I see that there is plenty of unsealed honey in 

 the combs. If not, I feed in the evenings until there is, because the larva are never 

 so well fed when all the unsealed stores are used up. In favorable weather the bees 

 will gather abundance from fpult bloom and dandelions to feed the brood well and 

 keep a large quantity of unsealed honey on hand. Then, right in the middle of it all 

 we sometimes get a frost, followed by rainy weather, which cuts off the honey flow so 

 suddenly that the bees have to use up the unsealed stores at once to feed the larvae. Then, 

 when the unsealed stores are used up and no honey is coming in, with a large quantity 

 of larvae to feed, the bees will not at such times uncap the sealed stores fast enough 

 to keep pace with the large amount of larvae that needs feeding. If the weather keeps 

 backward after that, so that the ibees get little or no honey, they will begin to drag out 

 some of the larvae, and a little later on we find starved brood. The larvae that are lost 

 at such times are the very life blood of the honey business." 



It is particularly important that this condition should not be allowed to occur 

 in an apiary affected with European Foul Blood, because the larvse ne^d the very 

 best care to enable them to resist the disease germs which may be present. Italian 

 bees, well looked after at this time, will usually get through to the main honey 

 flow all right, and after that they are safe. 



A favorable locality provides a continuous supply of nectar and pollen from 

 natural sources throughout the spring, except in cases of adverse weather, as 

 mentioned by McEvoy above. The beekeeper will need to understand his own 

 locality fairly well to know whether this continuous supply is available. It takes 

 five or six weeks from the laying of the egg for the worker to become a field 

 gatherer. Active brood-rearing should begin then, at least six weeks previous to 

 the opening of the main honey flow, and should be continuous, without any break, 

 until the honey flow starts. 



The impulse to collect dust of some kind and carry it to the hive as pollen 

 in the spring seems very strong. When warm days come early, eo that bees are 

 active before any pollen-bearing flowers are in bloom, they will be seen collecting 

 sawdust, coaldust, and have even been known to collect black earth and embryo 

 cheese mites. For fifty years or more, writers have advised feeding flour or meal 

 of various kinds to the bees at this time, considering that it stimulated brood-rear- 

 ing. Some placed it in the cells of combs which were put in the hive, others in 

 shallow boxes, where the bees could have access to it. To keep bees home in rough 

 weather, it was advised to make soft candy of meal, pulverized sugar, honey and 

 water, knead it into a stiff dough and put into an open-work sack. This was first 

 dipped into hot water ami out again quickly, then laid over the frames where the 

 cluster could reach it. It supplied both sweet and pollen substitute. 



Cheshire mixed pea flour with syrup and spread it over the surface of an 

 empty comb, which he placed in the brood-chamber, and found that the bees used 



