THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



81 



answer would be a " location where 

 white clover and basswood or linden 

 abound, supplemented with full 

 honey producing plants." So far 

 very good ; for, without these, or 

 their equivalent, honey production 

 must be a failure. Nevertheless, 

 there are other important adjuncts 

 to a good location for the specialist, 

 but there is none more important 

 than a congenial climate in which 

 bees can be wintered cheaply and 

 with absolute certainty. The mat- 

 ter of climate is not so important 

 with those persons who keep bees 

 in connection with other pursuits, 

 because if they meet with disaster 

 in wintering they have something- 

 else to rely upon for a support. 

 But it is different with the specialist. 

 His all is invested in his apiary, 

 and what a load of care and 

 anxiety it would lift from his mind 

 to feel assured that his apiary was 

 resting safe and waiting for the 

 approach of spring and the first 

 opening flowers. 



There are other things of value 

 besides money. The specialist in 

 apiculture is as much entitled to a 

 life free from galling anxiety as 

 other people are, but to this he can 

 never attain in a climate where his 

 property is in peril two-thirds of 

 the time. The honey bee is a 

 native of a warm climate, and is at 

 home in the south. Notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that some persons 

 have attempted to cast suspicion 

 upon " southern-bred queens," I 

 am confident that the time is not 

 far distant when the superior merits 

 of southern-bred queens will be 

 11 



fully recognized by all well informed 

 apiarists. Northern writers on bee 

 culture agree pretty well that the 

 average life of the worker bee does 

 not exceed fort3^-five days. Some ' 

 give them a little longer lease of 

 life. In our climate they live 

 much longer than that. I have 

 had bees working in the field at 

 nearly ten months old ; of course 

 these bees had passed through the 

 winter months. 



There is a curious fact in con- 

 nection with climatic effects on 

 bees, which I have never seen 

 mentioned in print, and that is 

 bees breed earlier and more un- 

 sparingly in the spring, in a cold 

 climate than they do with us where 

 the climate is better suited to 

 their habits, and the preservation 

 of their health and vigor. Many 

 northern writers have boasted that 

 their colonies had from three to 

 five Langstroth frames filled with 

 brood in the month of March and 

 while in winter quarters. Such a 

 state of things would sound like an 

 idle tale, if I were not aware that 

 it is abnormal in character — the 

 result of climatic causes. 



Such excessive brood-rearing at 

 that season of the year is positive 

 evidence of decay and approaching 

 ruin. The queens and bees in- 

 stinctively comprehend their situa- 

 tion, and make an exhaustive effort 

 to counteract it, by overmuch brood 

 rearing. Such a state of things is 

 not peculiar to the honey bee, 

 there are many things in nature 

 analogous to it. With this abnor- 

 mal state of things present, we are 



