192 STATE BOAED OF AGEICULTUEE. 



3. It is not infrequent that bees, especially if unshaded during the intense 

 heat of our summers, find their hives a veritable furnace, ^vhich, despite all 

 their efforts at ventilation, become unmhabitable. There is a profusion of 

 bloom and the precious nectar fills every corolla tube. The bees long to convey 

 this to their homes, but their hives being a very oven, as it were, they must per- 

 force forego the precious opportunity, -when they show their utter dejection by 

 their abject stupor as they cluster outside their hives. 



4. Bees that become hopelessly queenless, — that is, lose their queen when 

 there are no eggs or brood to enable them to restore the loss, — often become 

 .totally demoralized. In fact, so great is their discouragement that their very 

 nature and instincts become reversed, and instead of being the "busy bees," 

 they are characterized by indifference and idleness. 



5. and last. Our bees may become discouraged and idle as the result of deple- 

 tion. They become weak, either from overswarming or other cause, become a 

 prey to robbers, or the bee-moth ; and finally, losing all heart, fold their arms 

 (or wings) and in hopeless idleness await their certain doom. 



Remedies. 



Let us now consider the brighter phase of our subject, — the remedies for 

 ihese evils, which, as I shall show, are in easy reach of the apiarist, and with- 

 out which he might well feel that the silver lining to the clouds that hung above 

 his business was all too dim to keep hope alive. 



Of course a wise location of the apiary will do much to remedy the fiist evil. 

 If the region abounds in fruit trees, if white clover is abundant, and where 

 it is not, if there are yet standing the grand old forests, — God's first temples, — 

 with their graceful maples, broad-spreading linn, and beautiful tulip trees; if 

 :added to this there are, hard by, ample marsh laud abounding in solidagos 

 (golden-rods), asters, eupatoriums (boneset), coreopsis, (tick seed), bidens (beg- 

 gar-ticks), etc., etc. ; tlien the apiarist can hardly escape an annual experience, 

 which shall make him to rejoice in peace and plenty. If the apiarist is not 

 thus fortunate he may yet hope to do much to insure success. He can hardly 

 •escape fruit blossoms and white clover, while alsike clover, rape, and black mus- 

 tard, may be made to take the place of linn, and may all be raised, as also 

 mignonnette with profit for other purposes, and in lieu of natural fall bloom, 

 buckwheat and various mints may be grown ; while tlie Kocky Mountain bee- 

 plant would serve a valuable auxiliary, and may prove profitable to raise on 

 account of its seeds. 



The evil of damp, v;et weather is one with which it is hard to cope. Yet such 

 seasons are full of hope, as they promise rich future bloom, when the days shall 

 be bright again. It is possible, too, that farther investigation may reveal plants 

 which shall yield richly of honey, and yet be independent of even the most 

 copious rains. 



In the spring and during the interims of honey secretion, all through the 

 season, the bees may be kept busy, and the queen thus active by feeding. This 

 can be done at slight expense, as one-half pound per day to a hive is quite suffi- 

 cient, and I have proved repeatedly that it pays richly for the expense and 

 trouble. 



The second evil is so easily remedied that we should hardly suppose it ever 

 need occur ; and yet I feel safe in averring that could I accurately state the 

 amount of loss from this cause each year, I should present an array of figures 

 that would startle you. It is not only necessary that the bees have room, but 



