320 AUSTRALASIAN 



CHAPTER XXI. 



CALENDAR AND BEE KEEPERS' AXIOMS. 



VARIABILITY OF SEASONS. 



No invariable rules can be laid down for the work to be done 

 in an apiary each month, which can be strictly followed in every 

 place, nor even in the same place in every year. The whole 

 plan of operations must be suited in the first place to the 

 normal climate of the district in which the apiary is situated, 

 the nature of the bee forage available both in the spring and 

 the honey season, and to the natural habits of the bees as 

 influenced by their local peculiarities. If these circumstances 

 be properly taken into account, a set of general rules may be 

 established suitable to the average of seasons ; but even these 

 must be liable to modifications at the judgment of the apiarist, 

 according to the variations, or the more or less abnormal 

 features, of different seasons. 



USE OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



To any one at all acquainted with the subject it will be 

 apparent how much depends upon the manner in which the 

 bees get through the winter months, upon their condition in 

 early spring, upon the period at which they commence to rear 

 brood extensively and to prepare for swarming, and upon the 

 time when those trees or flowers which are to furnish the chief 

 crop of honey come into bloom ; and it must be equally 

 apparent that all these things depend mainly upon the meteo- 

 rological character of the winter, the spring, and the summer, 

 especially upon the rates of temperature and of moisture which 

 vary a good deal occasionally in each season, even in the best 

 climates. We are all accustomed to speak in a vague manner 

 about mild or severe winters, early or late springs, and wet or 



