268 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
When bees first begin to fly in the Spring, it is well to 
teed them a little, even when they have abundant stores, 
as a small addition to their hoards encourages the pro¬ 
duction of brood. Great caution, however, should be 
used to prevent robbing, and as soon as forage abounds, 
the feeding should be discontinued. If a colony is over¬ 
fed, the bees will fill their brood-combs, so as to inter¬ 
fere with the production of young, and thus the honey 
given to them is worse than thrown away. 
The over-feeding of bees resembles, in its results, the 
noxious influences under which too many children of the 
rich are reared. Pampered and fed to the full, how often 
does their wealth prove only a legacy of withering 
curses, as, bankrupt in purse and character, they prema¬ 
turely sink to dishonored graves. 
The prudent Apiarian will regard the feeding of bees 
—the little given by way of encouragement excepted— 
as an evil to be submitted to only when it cannot be 
avoided, and will much prefer that they should obtain 
their sui)plies in the manner so beautifully described by 
him whose inimitable writings furnish us, on almost every 
subject, with the happiest illustrations: 
“ So work the honey bee."!, 
Creatures that, l)y a rule in Nature, teach 
The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 
They have a king and officers of sorts. 
Where some, like magistrates, correct at liome, 
Olliers, like merchants, venture trade abroad ; 
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings. 
Make boot upon tlie Summer’s velvet buds ; 
Which pillage they, with merry marcli, bring homo 
To the tent royal of their emperor, 
Wlio, busied in Ins majesty, surveys 
iDgly the tilrectiona of Ilyglnua—whose writings are no longer e.vtent—that Ihii 
uiatter shouiii bo most cnrefnliy t“iitteudeii to. 
