20 -J 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURN'AL AFD GAZETTE. 



Rich honey districts nre those in which not 

 only a regular increase of stocks, hy natural 

 swarming, can he counted on, hut where an 

 annual yield of surplus honey is equally certain, 

 though varying in amount. 



This is the case, for the most part, where the 

 bees enjoy a regular succession of pastnrage, 

 and a mild climate fosters the secretion of 

 honey, and favors the indefatigable labors of 

 the nectar-loving insect. Wliere extensive 

 orchards exist; where locust groves and linden 

 trees are found; where white clover abounds; 

 wliere rape and esparsette are cultivated, and 

 where the golden rod and the aster predomi- 

 nates in tlie autumnal flora, there the real El- 

 dorado of bee-culture exists; but, alas, in all 

 our perambulations we have never yet chanced 

 to discover it. 



In ever)^ countrj^ even the seemingly most- 

 favored region, there will always be found some 

 fiiaiiis sufficiently large and wide to prove that 

 the site comes short of that perfection wliich 

 constitutes the beau ideal in the bee.-l<eeper's 

 imagination. No such perfect scene is met with 

 in wide-spre-dd Germany, nor in la belle France, 

 nor in merrie England^ all of which are densely 

 populated and highly cultivated. The case is 

 bravely altered, however, already in such lialf- 

 reclaimed countries as Russia, Hungary, and 

 Turkey; and it reaches a still closer approxi- 

 mation to the desired acme of completeness in 

 the yet wilder southern regions of the New 

 World. In these latter, wliere an almost unin- 

 terrupted summer prevails, and bee •; revel amid 

 a profusion of flowers and everdistiUing nectar, 

 an almost incredible increase of stocks may be 

 effected, because it is there scarcely possible to 

 repress, or in any degree control natural 

 swarming. Tlius the two hives of bees which 

 Mr. Hanneman, who emigrated from Germany 

 to Brazil in 1852, took with him, increased to 

 twenty-eight the first season, and from these he 

 obtained three hundred and seventy-seven 

 swarms the following year. 



Precisely the reverse .of this ocurs in those 

 districts of Europe characterized as poor. In 

 them there is an almost total absence of the 

 swarming impulse, unless where generated by 

 mismanagement, or fostered by the injudicious 

 use of small hives. 



And, iu view of the comparative poverty of 

 even our best honey districts, when contrasted 

 with the superabundance of those more favored 

 regions, it might well be asked whether it were 

 not wise to abandon bee-culture altogether. 

 This might be so, if we were dwelling in a 

 country so barren of natural flowers that the 

 secretion of honey would be regarded as a rare 

 occurrence. 



But such is not the case. Almost everywhere 

 supplies ample for an ordinary apiary exist; 

 and they abound especially where improved 

 agriculture has not yet been extensively intro- 

 duced. Besides, in all ordinary districts, bee- 

 culture will in the main always he treated by 

 the farmers as a secondary pursuit, demanding 

 only a small portion of their time, and re((uir- 

 ing no investment of capital. It is and can be 

 attended to without neglecting other engage- 

 ments, and its products are thus in reality clear 



gain, constituting in the aggregate an immense 

 saving' to the community. Thws, in the late 

 kingdom of Hanover, there are hundreds of 

 common farmers who have from 100 to 200 

 hives on their premises, and superintend them 

 without any important inteilerence Avith their 

 ordinary labors on the farm; and in Poland 

 there are many farms on each of which more 

 than a thousand hives are kept with great pro- 

 fit, as a mere incidental adjunct of the establish- 

 ment. These are countries, the soil of which is 

 by no means celebrated for fertility; and similar 

 results could undoubtedly be realized in more 

 favored regions. 



A number of writers, indeed, such as Putsche, 

 Morlott, Nutt, and others, have made minute 

 calculations to show the exceeding profitable- 

 ness of bee-culture when prosecuted on an ex- 

 tensive scale, by which they exhibit an annual 

 percentage of gains truly inviting' and delight- 

 ful to men of speculative tendencies — doing the 

 whole matter up as ingeniously and as success- 

 fully, too, as Captain Bobadil used up the ene- 

 my's army "by computation." They, how- 

 ever, forgot to take into account the fact that 

 for such success a perfect system of manage- 

 ment, unflaggingly pursued by a skilled expert, 

 under circumstances everywhere and at all 

 times adapted to advance and sectire the ob- 

 ject, and all this in a country and clin\atc in all 

 respects specially favorable, are absolutely in- 

 dispensable, and as absolutely unattainable. 



We must hence content ourselves with the 

 assurance that iu every part of the country 

 where utter barrenness does not prevail, bee- 

 culture may be prosecuted with profitable re- 

 sults, if it be managed judiciously; and that 

 under such management the present product of 

 honey and wax, in any district, may easily be 

 quadrupled. 



Natural swarms require feeding if bad wea- 

 ther of several days continuance occur immedi- 

 ately after they are hived, as otherwise the 

 stores they carry with them from the parent 

 stock may be exhausted, and famine ensue. 

 Artificial colonies demand such attention more 

 imperatively, because the bees, being taken 

 unawares, when separated from the parent 

 stock, will not have provisioned themselves for 

 the occasion. 



■ ♦^ a> * «* 



In the MontJilfi Magazine for September, 

 1825, an instance is recorded of five swarms 

 being thrown off" and hived before the end of 

 Jul y7 from planting a single stock. The sea- 

 son, however, was favorable, and the situation 

 particularly so. They did not all issue from 

 the first or parent stock, but from that and the 

 earliest swarm. 



Tjir young queens that conduct the secondary 

 swarms usually pair the day after Ihcy are 

 settled in their new abode. Then the indiffer- 

 ence with which their subjects have hitherto 

 treated them is exchanged for the usual respect 

 and homage. 



