4 APRIL 1947, Page 17

Generous Bee Rations

One of the only generous allowances of food approved by the Govern- ment has been the grant of sugar for the bees. It has enabled the swarms to get through the winter with singular success. They have poured out of the hives in great strength whenever the temperature justified it, and every aconite, snowdrop and crocus in the garden was visited by the morrow of the first day of official spring. The supply of pollen was almost adequate wherever sallows were found or the garden flowers abundant ; and the old, old habit of planting sallows in front of the hives has lately returned to popularity and, I think, willow gardens have been multiplied. If bees are kept the attractive salix daphnoides is to be recommended for its earliness. It pays no attention whatever to the discouragements of the weather. The few casualties among the swarms have been due to field mice, which seem to be at their peak in numbers, and when they can creep into a hive will rapidly devour every single bee, leaving only the head in evidence. The smallness of the orifice through which they will wriggle is scarcely to be believed.