BEE-PJSTURES. 87 



be in readiness to take advantage of it when it does come 

 round. Which is the best honey season, a wet or a dry- 

 one ? A long drought soon destroys the harvest of honey, 

 and a too wet season is even worse ; a medium betwixt the 

 two is, we find, the best. We base this upon the past ten 

 years' experience. When we hear fears expressed about 

 an expected drought, the bees are then storing , honey 

 rapidly if this happens to be in early summer, but if it 

 continues the honey gradually becomes scarce. A tole- 

 rably moist season is after all the best, for the secretion of 

 the honey depends much upon the state of the atmo- 

 sphere. During dry easterly winds the fields present to 

 the bees nothing but barrenness, and if they have no 

 stores to fell back upon they begin to starve, which is soon 

 discovered by their casting out the brood. When the 

 weather is moist and sultry, and the air charged with 

 electricity, honey is most abundant. The bees know 

 this only too well, for, instead of idling at home, singing 

 " a better day is coming on," they work to make hay 

 while the sun shines. Huber remarks that the collection 

 is never more abundant, nor their operations in wax more 

 active, than when the wind is in the south, the air moist 

 and warm, and a storm approaching. Heat too long pro- 

 tracted, cold rains, and a north wind, entirely stop honey 

 gathering. 



How far bees will go in search of honey is a question 

 on which we scarcely venture to give an opinion, we 

 believe, however, the average distance will be found not 

 to exceed two miles, which would cover a circular area of 

 nearly thirteen square miles, taking^ the hive as a centre. 

 This opinion is shared by most thoughtful apiarians. We 

 have seen our Ligurians about two miles from their hive, 

 at a time when no other Italian bees were kept in the dis- 

 trict, so we think this evidence may be relied upon, but it 

 is the only test by which we ever tried them. 



