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 25lbs. of honey will be ample 
for winter stores ; in others again, like Matamata, where there 
is comparatively no forage between clover and clover, 35lbs. 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 
