774 
SPRING MANAGEMENT 
cial pollen. Trays should be set out in 
sunny places, under cover if possible, con¬ 
taining a few quarts of rye or pea flour. 
Unless bees can have natural or artificial 
pollen when brood-rearing starts, consider¬ 
able brood will be found dead. On seeing 
this the beginner is apt to conclude his bees 
have some form of bee disease—possibly 
foul brood. If the brood dies shortly after 
a sudden warming-up spell, during which 
there is very little natural pollen in or out 
of the hives, the owner of the bees should 
await further developments. See Pollen, 
subhead, “Substitutes for Pollen.” 
When bees are taken out of the cellar it 
may be advisable to put them in double- 
walled packed hives. Generally one would 
consider that such hives are too expensive 
to maintain; but if they enable the bee¬ 
keeper to get a crop of honey they would 
be a good investment, because the first cost 
should be divided over a period of 
years. If one feels that he cannot afford 
double-walled hives he can very often use 
to advantage tar-paper wrappings, as 
shown under Wintering. 
Outer case used for spring protection. 
If the cluster of bees can not fill the 
whole hive it should be confined to the 
number of combs that it can occupy, after 
which layers of newspapers should be fold¬ 
ed over the frames, covering top and sides 
down to the bottom-board, when waste pa¬ 
per or leaves may be put in on the two 
sides and the spaces filled up. 
Another plan is to wrap a newspaper 
vertically around a frame of ordinary comb, 
and then tie with a string. The newspaper 
should be long enough to project beyond 
the end-bars on each end, so as to close up 
spaces between end-bars and the ends of 
the hive. When the wrapped comb is in¬ 
serted the bulging fold at top and bot¬ 
tom of the comb should close up the 
space between the cover and the bottom- 
board. This makes a close-fitting service¬ 
able division-board at little expense. Ad¬ 
ditional layers of papers can now be put 
over the top of the frames. It would be 
advisable, in addition, to set on top a half¬ 
depth or full-depth super and fill this with 
planer shavings or leaves. When the 
frames wrapped in paper are inserted on 
each side of the cluster, combs of honey 
can be put on the outside. As soon as the 
bees need more room or stores they will eat 
away the paper and occupy the whole hive. 
The newspaper packing above described 
costs nothing except the time employed, 
and that certainly would pay a big divi¬ 
dend, not only in the colder climates where 
bees dwindle in the spring, but in semi- 
tropical climates where bees suffer from 
chilly weather. 
If colonies wintered in the cellar are 
very weak it may be advisable to unite be¬ 
fore they are set out. See Uniting. 
One difficulty in uniting outdoor bees is 
that those moved to a new stand are quite 
inclined to go back to the old hive. This 
can be overcome to a great extent. ( See 
Uniting.)* Uniting in the spring is often 
unsatisfactory. Never unite two weak ones, 
but add a weak one to a medium, and thus 
make it strong. Unless the colony is very 
weak take out the surplus of combs that it 
does not occupy or use, and crowd the little 
cluster on as few frames as it can occupy. 
In that case, division-boards should be 
moved over, and the frames set over on the 
other side. The hive should be warmly 
packed, and the entrance contracted down 
to one inch wide to prevent robbing and to 
conserve heat. 
In going over the yard in early spring 
one is likely to find, if the bees are win¬ 
tered outdoors, one or more dead colonies. 
Their entrances should be shut up bee-tight, 
for otherwise on the first warm flight day 
they will be robbed out by the other bees, „ 
resulting in a general disturbance of the 
whole yard. (See Robbing.) Combs on 
which bees have died may be used later on 
by putting fresh bees on them. Unless 
they are very badly soiled with dysentery 
so they are fairly smeared over with a 
