In summer, it is only swarms or casts, as a rule, that ought to be in any need of this kind of help; but, as autumn comes on, especially if the bees have been seriously deprived of their hardly-earned supplies, it will be necessary to make up to them some of that of which they have been denuded. With skeps, the only guide as to the condition of food stores is the weighing-machine. If this indicates a less total than from twenty-five to thirty pounds, it will be advisable to supply syrup till the requisite weight is attained. With bar-frame hives an examination of the state of affairs is perfectly easy, and there is no difficulty in removing combs which are quite empty, and are not needed for the clustering of the bees. Those which are left should each contain six or seven inches square of sealed honey, some two square feet, as a total, being considered about the proper quantity for a fairly strong stock to winter on. For ascertaining the state of the hives in autumn, there should be an inspection of them about the middle of September; and, if necessary, the feeding should then be begun. It may be continued through October, but not later; otherwise there are dangers to be incurred. The first is, lest the evaporation of a certain amount of water from the stored syrup should not take place, and consequently, being left unsealed in the cells, it should ferment, and produce dysentery among the bees. The second is, lest there should not be sufficient warmth in the hive for the elaboration of the wax needed for sealing the filled cells; in which case, also, dysentery is likely to occur, when the immatured syrup is consumed. Syrup given in autumn must be thicker than that supplied in spring, and should be made of five pounds of sugar to one quart of water, a table-spoonful of vinegar being added, and the mixture well, but carefully, boiled. Sometimes, when bee-keepers have neglected the feeding of their stocks till late in autumn, they try to atone for their remissness by giving a supply of flour-cake--a baked mixture of sugar and pea-meal--on the top of the frames. This practice is not advisable, as the nitrogenous food is almost certain to stimulate breeding; and if this happens when the temperature is too low for the development of eggs and larvæ, great mischief may be done. The danger from this source will be very much in proportion to the weakness of the stock.