Beekeeping in Wisconsin 15 



be plenty of young worker bees. This factor is of more im- 

 portance than is usually supposed. Very often colonies, 

 having plenty of good food with an old fertile queen, come 

 out of the cellar with plenty of bees, but in two or three weeks 

 dwindle down to a mere handful. This is due largely to the 

 fact that old bees constitute the colony in the fall. They 

 naturally die of old age shortly after passing through the 

 winter and for this reason the value of the presence of plenty 

 of young worker bees in the fall is evident. When the bee- 

 keeper has reason to believe that most of the bees in his 

 colonies are old and there is no prospect of a fall flow of 

 honey, it is advisable to feed, beginning with the first of 

 September, a little honey or sugar syrup every two or three 

 days in order to stimulate the queen so that plenty of young 

 bees will be obtained for winter. This should be done only 

 when there is a sufficient quantity of food for winter already 

 present. If there is not sufficient food for winter and feeding 

 is desirable for the production of young bees, larger quanti- 

 ties of food will be required according to the respective needs 

 of the colonies as the bees must store away their winter's 

 food supply at the same time. 



Avoid Early Stimulative Feeding 



There is one point which should be carefully observed, 

 however, and that is not to begin this stimulative feeding 

 too early. When it is begun by the middle of August the 

 queen often receives a very strong permanent stimulus so 

 that the colony continues to raise a large amount of brood 

 until the last of September or first week in October, and 

 thereby consumes a large part of their winter stores. Of 

 course, a very large number of fine young bees are thus ob- 

 tained for wintering, but this is likely to result disastrously be- 

 cause an insufficient amount of food is left for winter. Usu- 

 ally a sufficient number of young worker bees are obtained 

 when stimulative feeding is begun September 1. With that 

 management, practically all of the young bees are produced 

 from the stimulative food given them and the winter stores 

 remain to be used when most needed. 



In winter months. — The wintering of bees is to be under- 

 stood as their maintenance from the beginning of settled cold 



