The Influence of Locality 



In ray earlier bee-keeping years I was often sorely puzzled at the 

 diametrically opposite views often expressed by the different corre- 

 spondents for the bee journals. In extenuation of that state of mind I 

 may say that at that time I did not dream of the wonderful dififerences 

 of locality in. its relation to the management of bees. I saw, measured, 

 weighed, compared, and considered all things apicultural by the standard 

 of my own home — Genesee County, Michigan. It was not until I had 

 seen the fields of New York white with buckwheat, admired the lux- 

 uriance of sweet-clover growth in the suburbs of Chicago, followed for 

 miles the great irrigating ditches of Colorado, where they give life to 

 the royal purple of the alfalfa bloom, and climbed mountains in Cali- 

 fornia, pulling myself up by grasping the sage brush, that I fully realized 

 the great amount of apicultural meaning stored up in that one little 

 word — locality. 



The basic principles of apiculture are the same the world over ; but 

 the management must be varied according to the locality. In the South 

 and extreme West, the wintering of bees is easily accomplished, it being 

 necessary only to see that they have sufficient food. As we go north, 

 some protection must be given — either by packing or by the use of chaff 

 hives. As we go still farther north, successful wintering is secured, 

 as a rule, only by the use of first-class winter stores, and putting the 

 bees into a cellar. 



In Cuba and Florida the honey harvest comes in the cooler part of 

 the year, or what corresponds to our northern winter ; and those varieties 

 of bees that will breed late in the summer, even though little or no honey 

 is coming in, are more desirable, as more populous colonies are thus 

 secured at the opening of winter. In the Northern States, east of 

 the Mississippi, the main honey-flow comes, as a rule, early in the sum- 

 mer. 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 basswood, but there is a steady flow that may 

 last for months ; the conditions being ideal for the production of comb 



