270 
TIIK mVE AND IIONICY-BEE. 
sons, their aggregate resources should be such that, when 
ail equal division is made, there will be enough food for 
all. If some have more and others less than they need, 
an equitable division may usually be effected in movable- 
comb hives. Such an agrarian procedure would soon 
overthrow human society; but bees thus helped, will not 
spend the next season in idleness; nor will those which 
were deprived of then- surplus, limit their gatherings to a 
bare competency. 
Early in October—in northern latitudes, by the mid¬ 
dle of September—if forage is over, all feeding required 
for wintering bees should be carefully attended to. If 
delayed to a later period, the bees may not have sufficient 
time to seal over their honey, which, by attracting moist¬ 
ure and souring, may e.xpose them (p. 256) to dysentery. 
Such colonies as have too few bees to winter well, should 
be added to other stocks. 
West India honey Is, ordinarily, the cheapest liquid 
Ime-food. To remove its impurities, and prevent it from 
souring or candying in the cells, it should have a little 
water added to it, and, after boiling a few minutes, should 
be set to cool; the scum on the top should then be 
i-emoved. A mixture of three lbs. of honey, two of brown 
sugar, and one of water, prepared as above, has been 
used by me (p. 257) for many years, without injury to 
my bees. 
It is desirable to get through with feeding as rapidly 
as possible,* as the bees are so excited by it, that they 
consume more food than they otherwise would. In my 
hives, the teeder may be put over one of the holes of the 
honey-board, into which the heat ascends. The bees c.an 
then get their food without being chilled in cold weather, 
* Feeding stockn, driven late in the Fall into empty hlven, uiiiess cuinhs (p. 71] 
eon bo given to tUom, will sol<Ioin pay expenses. 
