GENERAL HINTS 5 
qualities are essential assets to any would-be 
successful bee-keeper. There is no ‘‘ golden 
rule,’ for his guidance through the year, no- 
thing that must be done invariably at stated 
times and seasons. It is here that the novice is 
puzzled and perplexed, for apparently what is 
right at one time becomes wrong at another, 
but it is only by experience that the guiding 
knowledge is acquired. For instance, it is 
useless to feed a hive with the view to increase 
the brood, if the hive be queenless, or possesses 
a drone-breeding queen, or a fertile worker. 
And again, it is useless to put a super on a 
queenless stock or a weak hive, for instead of 
helping to conserve the heat of the hive one 
but adds to the area for the bees to heat with 
their own little bodies, with the additional risk 
of chilling the brood and starving the bees. 
For it should be remembered that the colder 
the hive, the greater the consumption of food 
by the bees. 
It ts well to bear in mind that the best of all 
heat-producers in a hive are the bees themselves, 
but to enable them satisfactorily to become so 
suitable accommodation and food are absolutely 
Necessary. 
The Queen.—One of the greatest mysteries 
connected with the hive is the life history of 
