24 ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 



just the same, and try things for yourself until you are sure you are 

 rig-ht, then go ahead. 



One expensive mistake, yet one that is easily avoided, is made 

 year after year by manjr bee-keepers, and that is not securing hives, 

 sections, foundation and other supplies in season. They iniend to 

 buy them soon enough, but v^^ait until the last moment. So many 

 others do the same thing that dealers and manufacturers are over- 

 run with orders, and expensive and vexatious delays occur. A de- 

 lay of a few days, at just the right time, sometimes means the loss 

 of a crop of honey. 



It is a mistake to attempt the production of honey, commercially, 

 in a locality not suited for the business. The same may be said of 

 queen rearing. It is a mistake to attempt it as a business in the 

 Northern States — the seasons are too short. I followed it several 

 years, and, while the experience may be valuable to me in my posi- 

 tion, I am now well satisfied that I would have made vastlj^ more 

 money had I turned my whole time and attention to the production 

 of honey. 



It is a mistake to suppose that a poor location can be changed to 

 a good one by planting for honey. Those who thus imagine do not 

 realize the vast area of bloom that is needed to produce a surplus 

 crop of honey. The bees of an apiary, going 2yz miles in every 

 direction, scour a territory of about 12,000 acres. There is this to 

 be said, however, if the soil, climate, and other conditions, are such 

 that it is profitable for farmers to raise such crops as yield honey, 

 then thej' will be raised, and the acreage will be such that the yield 

 of honey from ttiem will be of benefit to an apiary in that locality. 

 Note the buckwheat regions of New York and the alfalfa fields of 

 Colorado as examples. 



