THE HONEY-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. 
The bees will soon empty them. If you think they want 
some more food, boil some sugar with water or mild beer 
into a syrup, about the consistency of thin treacle ; do not 
nse the very coarse sugar—for this the bees do not like— 
nor boil the syrup longer than is necessrry to dissolve the 
sugar: stir it also, that it may not burn. Then pour some 
of this syrup out of a bottle, or tin made like an oil feeder, 
into the cells of the comb which has been emptied, and 
place it before the hive as before. Remember that there 
is no better food for bees than honey, when it can be got 
(it is mother’s milk to them), nor any better feeder than 
a piece of empty honey comb. 
Another time when feeding is necessary, is if a succes¬ 
sion of very bad weather sets in after a new swarm has 
been hived. I have told you that each bee swarms with 
her honey bag full. They convert this into wax during 
the first and second days. You may observe that very few 
bees stir out the first day; after that they want a fresh 
supply : and if by stress of weather they are prevented 
from going abroad to seek it, a few pounds of honey 01 
syrup will be well bestowed, and amply repaid. It is not 
like an alms given to an idle beggar, but a seasonable loan 
to an industrious tradesman. 
Water for Bees. 
There is one other sort of food which bees require, and 
which they cannot do without, viz., water ; which you will 
do well to supply them with, if they do not find it near their 
hives. It is bad to have your hives quite close to a large 
river or pool of water, for thousands of bees will be beaten 
down into the water by high winds, when they are return- 
ino- heavily laden to their hive; but a small rivulet is a 
cmod thing to have near: in the summer season you will 
see a great number of bees standing on any little stones or 
bits of grass which may be by its edge, drinking to their 
heart’s content. In defect of a stream, they will find ou 
any pump or water butt which is handy to their hive 
and satisfy themselves there; or at places where the 
water they get is stagnant, or even impure. But as water 
carrying is heavy work for bees as well as for men, it is 
