42 
safely left to take care of themselves as to food supply during 
the summer, but they frequently suffer severely from want of 
food during that period. Honey is often very scarce during the 
period after the early tree blossoms have gone and before white 
clover is in full bloom, and again when the white clover bloom 
is over and before ling-heather is in bloom ; stocks may dwindle 
so much during these intervals as to be unable to recover strength 
in time to make use of the succeeding honey flow. The necessity 
for feeding at such periods is therefore obvious. At such times 
supers not containing honey should be removed, unless the stock 
is so strong as to require one for extra space. If there is honey 
available in sections, it may be fed as described below, but it 
is best not to leave more than one crate on under such conditions ; 
if the stock’s food supply is low, and comb honey is not avail- 
able for food, feeding as necessary with summer syrup (178) 
should be adopted. If the stock is on the verge of starvation 
when noticed, give one quart of summer syrup rapidly. If, 
however, it is only necessary to keep a strong stock in good 
breeding condition, so that it will be capable of taking full 
advantage of the return of the honey flow, give about } to 4 pint 
of summer syrup daily. The honey in uncompleted sections 
may advantageously be fed to bees. If there are only a few 
such sections they should be placed behind the dummy, in the 
lower edge of which a passage is in. to 3 in. deep should be cut for 
the workers topassthrough. Agood method for providing sucha 
passage, is to cut a piece 2 in. wide by 3 in. deep out of the base 
of the dummy, and to fix it in its place again by a fine screw or 
nail driven through its centre up into the dummy ; its ends may 
be slightly bevelled: this piece of wood may be turned as desired 
to open or close the passage from the brood chamber to the rear 
of the dummy ; if there are many sections they may be left in 
a crate on the hive, turning back the fore end of the quilt to let 
the bees come up between the two front frames. The unripe 
honey taken from the ripener (124) may advantageously be 
used for summer feeding, either by itself, or mixed with summer 
syrup. Ifa stock is found to be without food, a good method 
of affording immediate relief is to take out a back frame contain- 
ing a large number of empty cells, lay it down flat on one of its 
sides and pour summer syrup slowly over the face of the comb, 
so that it shall flow into the empty cells on the upper side of the 
comb ; then return the frame, placing it at the back of the brood 
nest. 
When it is desired to stimulate breeding in order to bring a 
stock up to the full strength for wintering, 
104. Autumn Feeding. it should be fed with two holes, but not 
more, of summer syrup (88, 178). In 
order that a stock may winter safely, it should be provided with 
at least twenty, but preferably thirty, pounds of capped honey 
in frames. A well-filled frame will contain about five pounds of 
honey. If the bees have not been able to provide sufficient store 
