Spring Management of Bees 
Usually in the North the bees come through their 
long winter sleep greatly reduced in numbers — so much 
so that the bee-keeper is very much inclined to jump 
to the conclusion there is not a sufficient number left 
to form a thrifty colony, and he is strongly disposed 
to double up or combine two colonies in one, thinking, 
perhaps, to have one good strong colony rather than 
two weak ones. But the veterans know this does not 
help matters very much, because one queen cannot lay 
as many eggs as two queens, and that it is on the 
vitality and virility of the queens that the matter 
finally rests, and not on the number of bees present ; 
so he proceeds to stimulate egg-production by all 
known means. It ought to be borne in mind that 
success in spring management depends on the young 
bees raised, and not at all on the bees which have 
passed the winter. Bees which have passed through 
a long winter are like old men of 70. who may be 
vigorous, but their race is nearly run, no matter what 
may be done for them. The secret, then, of successful 
"springing” of an apiary is to get a force of young 
bees to care for the queen as soon as possible. 
Spring management of bees really commences the 
previous year, because there is little hope of great 
success unless the queen is young and virile; hence 
it is that- the precaution should have been taken the 
previous summer to supply every colony with a young 
queen. Such a mother surrounded with a mere hand- 
ful of bees generally succeeds in building up the 
strength of the colony in time for the honey-flow. 
^)Id queens, on the other hand, are slow to respond 
P a the balmy airs of spring, and are too long in 
getting ready for the campaign. 
Poultry men know that success in egg-production is 
dependent on the use of pullets that lay more eggs, 
