Queen-rearing hives may have frames of young bees added to them without much fear of trouble, for as a rule young bees do not fight. =Stimulating.=--Bee-keepers who are working for honey generally stimulate the bees after the semi-hibernation days of winter are passed, for a period of some six or eight weeks before their services are likely to be required for honey gathering. This is to encourage brood-rearing and is accomplished by feeding the bees with syrup or artificial pollen. (See Chapter on Feeding, p. 82.) It must be remembered that once artificial feeding for this purpose has been resorted to it must be continued until the natural sources of nectar are available to the bees, for nothing checks the population or does more harm to the hive than stopping the food supply when breeding has commenced. It should be the aim of every bee-keeper to make himself acquainted with the order and approximate times of blossoming of the flowers and trees, and particularly the largest source of nectar in his neighbourhood. As a rule, from six to eight weeks is required to get the hives into a profitable condition after brood-rearing has commenced in earnest. In some favoured places the queen may begin to deposit eggs as early as January, though of course, in the north and colder districts, this is exceptional. Unless, therefore, a bee-keeper is in an exceptionally good district, and works for early fruit blossoms as a source of nectar, it is to his interest to leave the bees to themselves until the middle or end of March, provided, of course, they are not short of food. =Choked Brood-Nest.=--When feeding the bees in spring it is necessary to spread the brood-nest from time to time by adding a frame of comb near the centre of it. This provides the queen with sufficient cells in which to lay her eggs. Should the brood-nest become choked with honey, feeding should be stopped and a frame or two of honey taken from the hive and extracted, or given to hives that are not so fortunately placed, filling up the space with empty combs. Should the stores of honey and pollen be plentiful, it is well to scratch the cappings from some of the cells, though care must be taken not to damage the cappings of the brood cells, which will usually be found in the centre of the frames. Should the hive be full of frames and bees and most of the cells along the top of the combs be covered with clean white cappings, a super may be introduced, the necessary sheet of queen-excluder being placed over the brood-nest. The super should be a warm one with no leaky joints and fit properly over the brood-chamber. In districts exposed to high winds the precaution should be taken of tacking a narrow strip of thin soft felt round the bottom edges of the super to make it perfectly draught proof. CHAPTER VII =Hints on Working the Bees=--(_Cont._)