ld then,
while engaged in the work of skinning the skeleton carcasses of his
neglected herd, pretend that he could not afford to furnish, for a few
weeks, the food which would have kept them alive, he would not be a whit
more stupid than the bee-keeper attempting to justify himself on the
score of economy, while engaged in melting down the combs of a hive,
starved to death, after the Spring has fairly opened! Let such a person
blush at the pretence that he could not afford to feed his bees, the few
pounds of sugar or honey, which would have saved their lives, and
enabled them to repay him tenfold for his prudent care.

I always feed my bees a little, even if I know that they have enough and
to spare. There seems to be an intimate connection between the getting
of honey, and the rapid increase of breeding, in a hive; and the taste
of something sweet, however small, to be added to their hoards, exerts a
very stimulating effect upon the bees; a few spoonsfull a day, will be
gratefully received, and will be worth much more to a stock of bees in
the Spring, than at any other time.

By judicious early feeding, a whole Apiary may be not only encouraged to
breed much faster than they otherwise would have done; but they will be
inspired with unusual vigor and enterprise, and will afterwards increase
their stores with unusual rapidity. Great caution must be exercised in
supplying bees at this time with food, both to prevent them from being
tempted to rob each other, or to fill up with honey, the cells which
ought to be supplied with brood. Only a small allowance should be given
to them, and this from time to time, unless they are destitute of
supplies; and as soon as they begin to gather from the fields, the
feeding should be discontinued. Feeding, intended merely to encourage
the bees, and to promote early breeding, may be done in the open air. No
greater mistake can be made than to feed largely at this season of the
year. The bees take, to be sure, all that they can, and stow it up in
their cells, but what is the consequence? The honey which has been fed
to them, fills up their brood combs, and the increase of population is
most seriously interfered with; so that often when stocks which have not
been over-fed, are prepared not only to fill all the store combs in
their main hive, but to take speedy possession of the spare honey boxes,
a colony imprudently fed, is too small in numbers, to gather even as
much as the one which was