410 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
bottle of syrup, fed rapidly. Colonies in great want 
should, if possible, be supplied with a warm comb 
of store from some stock possessing enough and 
to spare. It is, generally speaking, unwise at this 
early date to hunt up the queen, as the involved 
exposure and disturbance are undesirable ; but any 
stock discovered to be queenless should be united 
to another, those having unimpregnated, or drone- 
breeding, queens being treated in the same manner. 
Should the bees, from any cause, be greatly reduced 
in numbers, outside, useless combs should be put 
beyond the tight-fitting division-board, and the lessened 
company again made as snug as possible. 
All are agreed that the early part of March is too 
soon to stimulate; yet, if our district be in the South, 
and such that fruit-blossom is our sheet-anchor for 
honey, we must start thus early in order to be in 
time for pears and apples : but bees will not now- 
answer to the helm as in a month later, and no pre- 
cautions will prevent their flying from the hive on 
bootless excursions, during which numbers meet their 
fate. Many authorities say that early stimulation will 
lead to spring dwindling — z>., a condition of things 
in which the old bees die off more quickly than new 
ones are produced, and the colonies dwindle, until 
often they become useless. There is, undoubtedly, 
a diseased condition — of which more hereafter — which 
leads to spring dwindling; but, apart from this, a 
prolonged experience justifies me in saying that early 
stimulation in the South of England does not neces- 
sarily develop any indications of dwindling. If it should 
do so, the cause lies in such poor protection during 
