318 FEEDING BEES. 
dangers the life of colonies, on the eve of a plentiful har- 
vest. 
The best way to feed destitute colonies in Spring is to 
give them combs of honey, which have been saved from the 
previous season for this purpose. If such cannot be had, 
the food may be put into an empty comb, and placed where 
it can be easily reached by the bees. 
Honey partially candied (830), may be given them, in 
small quantities, by pouring it over the top of the combs in 
which the bees are clustered. A bee deluged by sweets, 
when away from home, is a sorry spectacle; but what is 
thus given them does no harm, and they will lick each other 
clean, with as much satisfaction as a little child sucks its 
fingers while feasting on sugar candy. 
If acolony has too few bees, its population must be 
replenished before it is fed. To build up small colonies by 
feeding, requires more care and judgment than any other 
process in bee-culture, and will rarely be required by those 
who have movable-frame hives. It can only succeed when 
everything is made subservient to the most rapid produc- 
tion of brood. 
Fat. FEEpina. 
608. By the time the honey-harvest closes, all the colo- 
nies ought to be strong in numbers; and, in favorable sea- 
sons, their aggregate resources should be such that, when 
an equal division is made, there will be enough food for all. 
If some have more, and others less than they need, an equi- 
table division may usually be effected in movable-frame 
hives. Such an agrarian procedure would soon overthrow 
human society; but bees thus helped, will not spend the 
next season in idleness; nor will those deprived of their 
surplus limit their gatherings to a bare competency. 
