Show careless management Is costly to the apiarist careless management of bees in in winter often costs apiarists halt half the honey producing value of their colonies colonies which barely manage to survive the winter are so weak they can produce only small quantities of honey in the spring and summer successful wintering depends largely on the condition of the colonies as they enter the winter says C L sams north carolina state colac college e extension apiarist the col colonies nIes should have good queens a large number of bees and abundant stores of honey 1 it f good queens had been introduced du c ed to the colonies in time to start laying and if the hives had plenty of honey there will be a strong bee population at the start of the honey flow next spring when the honey is taken fr from om the hives orthe last care should be exercised not to take too muc much h single story colonies should have the combs three fourths full of honey and two story colonies should have the food chambers filled completely ely in case the bees run short of their natural food ebed them a a syrup made up of two parts granulated sugar to one part of water y each colony should be fed enough 10 to bring dri ng the food stores up to 40 or 50 pounds |