STATUS OF APICULTURE IN UNITED STATES. 71 



than in the country. The principal point which should be consid- 

 ered, however, is that the winter of 1903-4, just before these counts 

 were made, was exceedingly severe, and 75 per cent of the colonies 

 of honey bees in New England are reported to have died. Honey 

 bees do not hibernate, and long-protracted cold weather is detrimental 

 to them. Taking these facts into consideration, it is not so strange 

 that the honey bee played a minor part in pollinating the flowers in 

 the cases investigated. 



While in the particular cases observed by these authors the honey 

 bee was of little value as a pollenizer, the ease with which an enormous 

 number of honey bees could be brought to the aid of the orchardist 

 places this species in a class by itself. Estimating the population of 

 a colony of bees as low as 10,000 in early spring, it may easily be seen 

 how readily the orchardist may insure pollination by carrying a few 

 colonies of bees to the orchard, provided of course that the weather is 

 such that bees can fly while the trees are in bloom. Under adverse 

 conditions in winter the other insects may be so decimated that they 

 are few in number, but while honey bees may also be killed off in 

 winter, there are means of protecting them, which is not the case 

 with the purely wild species. 



Fruit growers as a rule recognize the value of the honey bee to 

 their industry. Taking into consideration the insurance of pollina- 

 tion by transporting colonies of bees to the places where their services 

 are needed, it is safe to say that the indirect benefit of the bee- 

 keeping industry annually adds to the resources of the country 

 considerably more than the amount received from the sale of honey 

 and wax. 



PRESENT SOURCES OF LOSS. 



There are several sources of great loss to bee keepers which might 

 be eliminated to a large extent by careful manipulation, but there is 

 much work which must be done before bee keepers are able to over- 

 come all these difficulties. Certain losses are expected regularly, and, 

 while some do their utmost to overcome them, an annual loss must 

 figure in their calculations. 



Swarming. — The average bee keeper loses many of the swarms 

 which issue from his hives, and these escaping swarms may well be 

 valued at a high figure. By careful manipulation and 1 he use of large 

 hives swarming may be largely controlled, but among the majority 

 of bee keepers too little attention is given to this phase of the work 

 and nothing is done until the swarm actually issues. In the produc- 

 tion of comb honey smaller hives are generally used, and the control 

 of swajming becomes more difficult. It is doubtless true that swarms 

 aggregating in value $1,000, 000 are lost every year. This loss may 

 be considerably reduced. 



