WHY KEEP BEES 5 



weather is cold and rainy, they will 

 promptly emerge and get to work if the 

 smi shines ever so little. There may be 

 but one hour of sunshine in a whole day, 

 but the honey-bees will be out and claw- 

 ing their way over the apple blooms while 

 the wild insects are still turning over in 

 their minds whether to go to work to-day 

 or wait until the whistle blows to-morrow. 

 In some seasons, too, the native insects 

 will not appear in sufficient numbers to 

 be of any great importance as factors in 

 fertilization. Due to previous cold 

 weather they may not have multiplied to 

 the extent that they are numerous enough 

 to be of value. None of them winter 

 over as adults in any considerable num- 

 bers, while the honey-bee passes the win- 

 ter, not as an individual, tucked away un- 

 der protecting scales of bark or hidden 

 in hollow logs, but in vast colonies, strong 

 in numbers and eager to make the most 

 of the first flowers that appear in the 

 spring. 



