BEE MANUAL. 179 



food is more likely to be required than at any other time are 

 autumn and early spring. 



FEEDING FOR WINTER. 



In the autumn examination of the hives, when preparing them 

 for winter (see Chapter. XIV.), the first point is to see to the 

 supply of food. In most districts 251bs. of honey will be ample 

 for winter stores ; in others again, like Matamata, where there 

 is comparatively no forage between clover and clover, 351bs. is 

 little enough for an ordinary colony. I believe it to be poor 

 policy to run the bees too close at the end of the season for the 

 sake of getting a little more honey ; for although we may get a 

 greater price for the honey than the syrup will cost for feeding, 

 still when we come to add the expense in time and labour of 

 feeding, to say nothing of the many inconveniences attached to 

 it, and the risk of starting robbing, we shall find very little 

 profit in the extra honey that has been taken. A colony well 

 supplied with food in the autumn will keep up breeding later 

 than one with a scant supply, and thus come out stronger in 

 spring. When food is required for winter stores it should be 

 supplied before cold weather sets in, and is best given as rapidly 

 as the bees will take it. Where there has been a short supply 

 for winter it will most likely be necessary to feed again just as 

 breeding commences at the end of winter; in short, food 

 should be given at any time it is required. 



STIMULATIVE FEEDING. 



It has already been stated that the activity of the queen as 

 regards egg-laying in spring depends upon the amount of honey 

 being gathered. As the season advances, and the worker-bees 

 are enabled to gather more than is sufficient for present re- 

 quirements, so egg-laying increases until the queen is depositing 

 to the full extent of her capacity. Where early spring forage 

 is abundant breeding will go on rapidly and the colonies will 

 gain strength much earlier in the season than where it is scarce, 

 unless we make up for the want by supplying the bees with 

 food artificially. It is a fact that rapid breeding does not so 

 much depend upon the amount of food already in the hive as 

 upon the amount being stored ; so that when we wish to stimu- 

 late breeding at a time when honey in the fields is scarce we 



