Spring Management 
263 
this new brood is well started, the manipulation may be 
repeated and still more eggs will be laid. This is attractive 
in theory but in practice is attended with danger. The 
bees may not attempt to cover both portions of the divided 
brood, resulting in loss, or, because of exceptionally cold 
weather, they may contract the cluster and leave the out¬ 
side brood to die. The beginner should by all means leave 
the amount of brood to be determined by the bees, confining 
his work to the supplying of protection, stores and room 
for the expansion of the brood. 
If the giving of abundant protection, stores and room 
for the maximum advantageous expansion of the brood will 
cause the colony, from its own instinct, to reach its maximum 
strength in time for the storage of the crop, then additional 
manipulations in stimulative feeding and in spreading of the 
brood, even though they may do no harm, are non-essential. 
They are, therefore, to be condemned for the commercial 
apiary. If the favorable conditions enumerated do not 
bring the necessary strength of colony and if stimulative 
feeding will, then these manipulations are justifiable. If 
the period for brood-rearing previous to the beginning of 
the honey-flow is short, rapid brood-rearing becomes more 
important. This is usually the case in northern localities. 
It is safe to say, however, that stimulative feeding and spread¬ 
ing of the brood should not be practiced early in the spring but 
should be confined to a period of six or eight weeks just previ¬ 
ous to the particular honey-flow for which the beekeeper is 
building up his colonies. If the main crop is in late summer, 
the beekeeper need not force his bees in the spring. In some 
localities, the season is made up of a series of honey-flows of 
about equal importance. If there are long intervals between 
honey-flows, the beekeeper must see that brood-rearing is at 
its best during a period of six or eight weeks before each flow. 
Substitutes for pollen. 
Beekeepers have repeatedly noticed that during a short¬ 
age in the supply of pollen, bees will pack meal or sawdust 
