BEES AND THEIR MASTERS 123 
form the most critical time of all for the apiarist 
who depends on his honey for his bread-and-butter. 
It is the natural beginning of the bee-year, and on 
his skill as a craftsman from now onward all chance 
of a prosperous season will rest. It is true that, 
within the hive, the bees have been awake and stir- 
ring for a long time past. Ever since the “‘ turn of 
the days,”’ just before Christmas, the queen-mother 
has been busy; and now there are young bees, little 
grey fluffy creatures, everywhere in the throng; and 
the area of sealed brood-cells is steadily growing. 
But it is only now that the world out-of-doors be- 
comes of any interest to the bees. 
This is the time when the scientific bee-man must 
get to work. His whole policy is one of benevolent 
fraud. He knows that the population in his hives 
will not be allowed to increase until there is a 
steady, assured income of nectar and pollen. He 
cannot create an early flower-crop, but he does 
almost the same thing. Every hive is supplied with 
a feeding-stage, where cane-sugar syrup, of nearly 
the same consistency as the natural flower-secretion, 
is administered constantly; and he places trays full of 
pea-flour at different stations amongst his hives, as 
a substitute for pollen. There is a special art in the 
administration of this sugar-syrup. One might 
think that if the bees required feeding at all, the 
more they were given the better they would thrive. 
But experience is all against this notion. The 
artificial food is given, not to replenish an exhausted 
larder, but to simulate a natural new supply. This, 
in the ordinary state of things, would begin in about 
a month’s time, coming at first scantily, and gradually 
increasing. By syrup-feeding early in March, the 
