OBJECTS IN FEEDING. 
33 
they should be entirely quiet. This puts them in an abnor- 
mal condition and is not good. Besides, if the weather is 
very cold or the colony weak, they cannot leave the cluster to 
get it, and will consequently starve when there is plenty of 
honey by them. Early spring feeding is liable to the same 
objections. When feeding is resorted to, bees act as though 
they were collecting honey from natural sources; being aroused 
to action they eat freely themselves and rear a greater quan- 
tity of brood, which requires much honey for their sustenance; 
so that if the bees are thus aroused by feeding, then cease for 
a time, they will continue to feed their brood until their store 
is exhausted; then, if honey is not to be had irom flowers 
for a week or ten days, they will cither starve in their hives, 
or, being driven to desperation, will leave and attempt to en- 
ter some other one, where they will be mercilessly massacred. 
They often leave even when they have a pound or two of hon- 
ey. This always occurs in very fine days; and I think is in 
part occasioned by annoyance from robber bees, who attempt 
to enter their hives. If there comes a very warm day in the 
last of March or the first of April, in a spring when bees are 
not well supplied, I always feel certain of being accosted, 
when I go on the street on the following day, with the inqui- 
ry, from bee-keepers of the surrounding country : “Why did 
the bees all come out of one of my hives yesterday, and at- 
tempt to enter another and were killed?” or, “Why did a 
swarm of some person’s bees come yesterday and attempt 
to enter one of my hives?” 
When a colony thus attempts to decamp they should be put 
back into their hive, and then fed regularly every evening 
until they can collect honey from flowers. It will add to the 
safety of the hive if the queen’s wings are cropped so that 
she cannot fly, or to have the entrance made so shallow that 
the queen cannot pass out. If feeding is commenced in the 
spring, it must be continued until the bees can collect from 
the flowers. But at this time feed sparingly , say a half pound 
or less daily. If too much is fed, they may fill so many of 
their cells with honey as not to leave sufficient room tor brood, 
and abundance of brood in the spring is more valuable than 
the same combs filled with honey ; so that in some cases in 
movable comb hives, when the breeding chamber is too much 
filled with honey, it is best to lift out some of the full combs 
and set empty ones in their place. 
2 * 
