ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 27 



as a rule, early in the summer. It may be very abundant, but is 

 seldom of long- duration; for this reason those varieties of bees are 

 preferable that rear brood very abundantly early in the season, and 

 then slacken breeding as soon as the main harvest begins. In some 

 parts of the West the honey harvest is much longer than in the East. 

 There are no such rapid flows as we have here sometimes from bass- 

 wood, but there is a steady flow that may last for months; the con- 

 ditions being ideal for the production of comb honey, as there is 

 abundant time in which to build combs for the storage of the honej', 

 fill them and seal them over. 



In the white clover and basswood regions, swarming and the 

 main honey-harvest come at the same time; in some parts of the 

 Southwest, swarming comes on with the flow from the early, minor 

 honey plants, and is almost entirely abandoned with the advent of 

 the heavy honey-flow that comes on later. 



The question of large versus small hives, over which there have 

 been so many spirited discussions, is largely one of locality. In the 

 cooler regions, where the harvest is early and short, small hives find 

 favor, especially in comb honey production, while the large hive is a 

 favorite in the warmer regions that are blessed with a long honey- 

 flow. 



Which the bee-keeper shall produce, comb, or extracted honej-, 

 is also largely a question oflocality. Where the main honey-flow is 

 short, as it often is from basswood, sometimes lasting only a few 

 days, there is, not time for the bees to build combs in the sections, 

 fill them, and cap them over, before the harvest is over and past. 

 With full sets of drawn combs in the extracting-supers, a good ci-op 

 of extracted honey may be secured within a week. Such conditions 

 as these exist in many parts of Wisconsin. Where honey must be 

 shipped long distances to market, as is the case in Cuba and Cali- 

 fornia, one very important reason for producing extracted honej' is 

 that there is so much less danger of damage in shipment. Dark 

 honey is, as a rule, much more salable in the extracted form. 

 When the flow is light but constant, and of long duration, as in Colo- 

 rado, and the honey is white, comb honey production has its advan- 

 tages, as honey is worth more when stored in sections than when 

 taken in the extracted form. 



California furnishes the most immense crops of honey that are 

 any where produced, but they are entirely dependent upon the rain- 

 fall that comes in the winter. If the rains fail to come, the bee- 

 keeper knows to a certainty that, not only will there be no surplus, 

 but, unless the proper management is given, his colonies will perish 

 from starvation. 



