282 BEE MANIPULATION. [Ch. v. 



of being unlikely to turn sour or to cause dysentery, as 

 liquid food does when the bees are confined by bad 

 weather. 



It is of the most urgent importance that the bees 

 should have water supplied them as soon as laying re- 

 commences, which should be early in January ; if the . 

 weather is such as to prevent their leaving the hive, they 

 must have it given them within. " For preparing the 

 nourishment for the brood," says Dzierzon, " water is to 

 the bees indispensable. Sooner could they dispense for 

 a considerable time with pollen." It is also needful to 

 them for the preparation of wax, and, adds the same 

 writer, " when the egg-laying commences, some amount 

 of wax is usually produced equally soon, the bees requir- 

 ing it for the covering of the brood cells.'' For a double 

 reason therefore water must be supplied them ; but in 

 their eagerness to obtain it they are often drowned, so 

 that It is well to give it them in shallow vessels containing 

 pebbles for them to alight on. Salt also, says Dr. Sevan, 

 is eagerly partaken of during the early part of the breed- 

 ing season till the beginning of May, after which they 

 seem wholly indifferent to it. 



Such are the instructions for the reglilar process of 

 feeding, though even this, with good management, should 

 not be needed unless in exceptional circumstances. It 

 has been remarked in the section on " Swarming " that a 

 supply of food is advisable at such occasions also, but 

 this is but an incidental trifle as compared with the other. 



