212 THE BEE-KEEPER’S MANUAL. 
much by the bees as by the brood. In a thinly-popu- 
lated h've, almost the whole family is required within 
doors at this time to warm the eges and feed the 
young, and consequently little is added to the con- 
tinually diminishing stock of honey and farina. 
Nothing is more common than to sce a hive, apparently 
well stored in February, on the point of perishing in 
the month of April. This is not the case where a 
large number of bees can be spared to go abroad and 
bring in fresh supplies, to keep pace with, or even 
to exceed, the demands of the craving brood. Still 
the principal explanation of the mystery is evidently 
that given by Mr. Cheshire, who, regarding honey or 
its equivalent as expressly a heat-forming provision, 
treats the result as only a matter of course, and 
reminds us that on doubling the number of occupants 
of the same room, we should rather, if anything, 
diminish the consumption of coals. 
It is also important to give attention to the supply 
of pollen existing in each hive. Those which have 
been in full work will often be found to contain an 
overplus of this article, in which cage it will be 
better to remove a portion (by extraction of frames) 
to prevent mildew occurring in the winter. On the 
other hand, any hive which, from some exceptional 
cause, contains a short supply, should receive the 
frames or combs which have been removed from its 
overstocked neighbours; or, in the absence of such 
provision, recourse must be had to one of the 
substances mentioned in the next chapter under the 
heading “Substitutes for Pollen.” Bees, as already 
noticed (page 184), require the building-up nutriment 
