ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 11 



sometimes very heavy, hence it would be risky to depend entirely 

 for a living upon keeping bees, in a limited v^ray, in such localities; 

 but, if the average profit from bee-keeping, one year with another, is 

 not the .equal of other rural pursuits, why keep bees? The truth of 

 the matter is that it is greater; and if bee-keepers would only drop 

 everything else, and adopt methods that would enable them to 

 branch out and keep hundreds of colonies where they now have 

 dozens, they would secure enough honey in the good years to more 

 than carry them over the poor years, and thus not only make a 

 living, but lay up money. 



When a man decides to cut loose from everything else, and go 

 into bee-keeping extensively, making it his only and his life-busi- 

 ness, the question of all questions is that of locality. There are 

 few localities in which a small apiary might not yield some surplus, 

 but when a man is to make of bee-keeping his sole business, the 

 securing of the best possible location is time and money well spent. 

 What a good, solid foundation is to a "sky-scraper," a good location 

 is to the building up of a successful, extensive bee business. Having 

 settled in a locality, the bee-keeper can not study it too thoroughly. 

 Especially must he understand its honey resources; the time when 

 each flow begins, its probable duration, its quantity and character. 

 He must know whether to expect a spring-flow, like that from dande- 

 lion, hard maple, or fruit-bloom, that will build up the colonies for 

 the main harvest that is to come later. If there is likely to be a 

 season of scarcity between the early flow and the main harvest, it 

 must be known, and preparations made to keep up brood rearing by 

 means of feeding or the uncapping of honey. The management will 

 depend largely upon the source of the main honey-flow, whether it 

 be raspberry, cloyer, basswood, buckwheat, alfalfa, sage, or fall 

 flowers. Whatever the source, the bee-keeper must know when to 

 expect it, and plan to have his colonies in exactly the right condition 

 to gather it when it comes. This is one of the fundamental princi- 

 ples of successful bee-keeping. 



Having secured the most desirable location, the next step is to 

 procure the best kind of bees that can be obtained. There are sev- 

 eral different varieties of bees, each with its peculiarities, but, aside 

 from this, every bee-keeper who has had experience with several 

 strains of the same variety, knows that some strains are far superior 

 to others — that there is scrub-stock among bees, just as there are 

 scrub-horses, cattle, sheep and poultry. With scrub-stock, the cost 

 of hives, combs and other appliances remains the same; it is no less 

 work to care for such stock; and it requires the same amount of 

 honey to raise and feed it as it does the best stock in the world. In 



