FEEPING. 
155 
Apparent contradiction when feeding causing starvation. 
It is possible that feeding a stock of bees in spring, 
may cause them to starve ! whereas, if let alone, they 
might escape. Notwithstanding this looks like a con- 
tradiction, I think it appears reasonable. Whenever 
the supply of honey is short, probably not more than 
one egg in twenty which the queen deposits, will be 
matured — their means not allowing the young brood to 
be fed. This appears from the fact that several eggs 
may be found in one cell. I transferred over twenty 
stocks in March, 1852 — most of the cells occupied with 
eggs contained a plurality ; two, three, and even four, 
were found in one cell ; it is evident that all could not 
be perfected. Also, the fact of these eggs being at this 
season on the bottom-board. Now suppose you give 
such a stock two or three pounds of honey, and they 
are encouraged to feed a large brood, and your supply 
fails before they are half grown. What are they to 
do ? destroy the brood and lose all they have fed, or 
draw on their old stores for a small quantity to help 
them in this emergency, and trust to chance for them- 
selves? The latter alternative will probably be adopt- 
ed, and then, without a timely intervention of favor- 
able weather, the bees starve. The same effect is some- 
times produced by the changes of the weather; a 
week or two may be very fine and bring out the flow- 
ers in abundance — a sudden change, perhaps frost, 
may destroy all for a few days. This makes it neces- 
sary to use considerable vigilance, as these turns of 
cold weather (when they occur) make it unsafe, till 
