OF MANAGING BEES. 63 



starve than attempt the experiment. Drawers rnay be used 

 without danger from robbers ; but when the feeder is used, 

 robbers must be guarded against. [See Appendix to prevent 

 robberies.] 



Bees should not be fed in the spring, unless they are near- 

 ly destitute of honey, because they fill up the brood-comb 

 too much with honey ; when fully fed in the fall, the bees 

 store up the honey in such a mannei- as will be convenient 

 for them in the winter ; and, notwithstanding the cells for 

 raising young bees are filled up with honey at that time, the 

 bees consume the honey and empty the breeding-cells in the 

 course of the -winter, so that the queen is not interrupted in 

 depositing her eggs to raise young bees in the spring fol- 

 lowing. We would not be understood to say there is no 

 danger of feeding too bountifully in the fall. Bare in 

 stances have been known, in which the hive was so perfect- 

 ly filled with honey at this time, that the, bees found no 

 resting-oells, and, when cold weather commenced, the hooks 

 to their feet tired, and the bees dropped and perished. 



A good swarm of bees in the Vermont Hive should weigh 

 at least twenty-five pounds the first of December, in addi- 

 tion to the weight of the hive: thirty -five or under forty 

 pounds will not be too much. 



Care should be exercised, in fall-feeding, to supply them 

 with good honey, otherwise the colony may be lost before 

 spring by disease. Good honey is the sweet nectar yielded 

 from the blows of timber and plants cultivated, or that grows 

 spontaneous in all countries, or it is the sweet substance con- 

 tained in any timber, plant, (root or branch,) that can be ex- 

 tracted before a chemical process is brought to act- upon it. 

 This most pure and unadulterated substance gradually 

 changes,: — naturally, by its combination with oxygen, which 

 sours It, — artificially, by being boiled, crystallized, &o., and 

 becomes sugar, molasses, &c. If honey is very thick, it maj 



