SPRING MANAGEMENT OF REES 
and lay earlier, than hens. It is very much the same 
in bee-management ; and some bee-keepers supply a 
young queen to every hive each year, just at the com- 
mencement of the honey-flow, knowing she will lay 
eggs rather than swarm, besides wintering well and 
coming through the spring without faltering in her 
work of laying eggs. Some old queens are good 
enough, but are too slow in getting to laying in the 
spring. Others on the other hand, with care will 
bring their colonies up to the point of securing a crop 
of honey from fruit-bloom. 
Spring dwindling is the bane of northern bee-keepers ; 
but it is practically impossible to find any remedy for 
it except to remove the bees to the far South, because 
bees are short-lived creatures at best. It is generally 
thought now that the life of a bee when it has reached 
the age at which it may fly abroad in search of nectar 
does not exceed a month at best. When, therefore, 
a cluster of bees passes through a winter of three 
months duration it will be readily perceived they have 
not much longer to live. 
During the winter large numbers die, not because 
of the cold, but of real old age. Their time has come 
to die, and there is no help for it. The true solution, 
then, of the spring-dwindling trouble is the conserva- 
tion of the old bees long enough only to provide for 
the rearing of a new generation of bees to take their 
place. 
It ought to be noted, also, that the best bees for 
wintering purposes are those which have done little 
or no work in the work of gathering stores ; for it 
is probable that bees which have done work before 
winter comes do not last very long when springtime 
comes again. 
With a young queen supported by young bees, the 
problems of spring management become quite simple. 
Occasionally the winters are such that the bees breeJ^ 
more or less all winter, and bright days now and the^^ 
give them an opportunity to fly, which keeps them in 
health. Under such circumstances the work of the 
bee-keeper is simplified, for all he has to do in this 
