SPRING MANAGEMENT 
773 
mates, the colony will dwindle very rap¬ 
idly even tho there is plenty of honey in 
the hive. The remedy, of course, is to lay 
aside a set of combs containing pollen, 
when pollen is coming in freely, and put 
them in the hives during February or 
March or earlier if necessary. 
REMEDY FOR SPRING DWINDLING. 
Sometimes several of the nuclei that have 
been reduced by spring dwindling may be 
united; but in most cases this does little 
or no good. While the combined force of 
bees all in one hive look well at the time 
of uniting, yet in a few days this large 
force seems to have diminished very rap- 
pidly, and, unfortunately, it is no better so 
far as strength or appearance is concerned 
than any one of the several nuclei that 
went to compose it in the first place. 
Probably the best way to unite is on the 
Alexander plan, as given under the head of 
Uniting. If practiced early it will prevent 
spring dwindling. 
As a further preventive colonies should 
be made to rear brood as late in the fall as 
possible. If there is any fall flow, bees 
will rear brood naturally, and the hives 
will be filled with a large force of young 
bees. If there is no fall flow, stimulation 
should be practiced. (See Feeding.) This 
stimulative feeding may not start up brood¬ 
rearing if the queens are two or three 
years old. As a rule, it does not pay to 
keep queens longer than two years; and 
many think that they should not be older 
than one year. Young queens will lay 
readily in the fall if given stimulative 
feeding, while old ones may require consid¬ 
erable coaxing. It follows that one of the 
best preventives for spring dwindling is a 
young queen in the fall. Such queens will 
lay until a large amount of stores is used 
up in August and September, in the north¬ 
ern States, and the beekeeper should, there¬ 
fore, see to it that they have sufficient after 
they cease brood-rearing. 
For particulars on how to protect the 
colonies to avoid spring dwindling, see 
Spring Management and Wintering. 
For the causes that induce dysentery in 
colonies that spring dwindle, see Dysen¬ 
tery. For particulars on how to feed in 
the fall, see Feeding and Feeders, sub¬ 
head, ‘‘Feeding to Stimulate.” For the 
consideration of the question of uniting, 
see the Alexander method under the head 
of Uniting. 
SPRING MANAGEMENT. — All colo¬ 
nies should be gone over very carefully as 
soon as bees can fly, to determine their 
stores. Unless they have two or three 
combs of honey, stores should be taken 
from some other colonies that can spare 
them. If no hive has a surplus, the needy 
should be fed a thick syrup consisting of 
two parts of sugar to one of water. See 
Feeding, especially those instructions urg¬ 
ing fall rather than spring feeding. 
Feeders should be placed on top of the 
frames, and covered with packing. It may 
turn cold shortly after; and even if the 
syrup is left in the feeder, starvation will 
be averted, for the bees will cluster around 
it and help themselves as they have need.. 
When the weather is cool or cold the syrup 
should be given hot. 
If colonies have been well housed and 
fed in the fall as they should be, there will 
be no occasion for feeding or equalizing of 
stores. Of course, there is liable to be 
occasionally a colony which, by reason of 
bad stores, may have dysentery. In that 
case the front of the hive will be soiled 
with dark-brown spots, and there will be a 
quantity of dead bees in front of the en¬ 
trance and on the bottom of the hive. Such 
a colony, even with the best of nursing, 
may die before settled warm weather comes 
on. If considerable honeydew has been 
gathered during the previous summer, one 
is likely to find some spring dwindling and 
dysentery in some of the hives. Some 
honeydews will make a very fair winter 
food; but the majority of them, especially 
those gathered from hickory and oak, are 
bad. If this is the case as much of it as 
possible should be used in brood-rearing in 
the summer, and then sugar syrup should 
be fed. 
Some springs the weather will turn 
warm very suddenly with no natural pollen 
available. The warm weather may last sev¬ 
eral days. During this time brood-rearing 
will start up rapidly; and if there is no 
pollen in the hives the bees will be hunting 
around in the barns and stables and 
chicken-coops for bran or chopped feed. 
It is necessary at such times to give artifi- 
