1 88 A Modern Bee-Farm 



Many inquire how they are to know when honey is coming in. 

 Examination of the hive will, of course, show every vacant cell being 

 more or less occupied with the thin newly gathered nectar. The 

 bees, too, come in with distended bodies, falling heavily upon 

 the flight board. Sometimes the aroma of the incoming stores 

 is distinctly noticeable, more particularly at evening when many 

 bees are ventilating at the entrance, and a perfect roar is heard 

 throughout the apiary. Apart from this, the advanced apiarist 

 has an instinctive feeling that honey is, or is not being gathered. 

 The state of the atmosphere and his knowledge of surrounding 

 crops, tell him at once what to expect. The temperature may 

 range anywhere from 70° to 90° in the shade, but if it continue 

 too hot and dry for more than ten or fourteen days, the amount of 

 honey brought in will decrease daily, unless there happen to be a 

 succession of heavy ground crops coming along, when the earth 

 being shaded, moisture is still retained. A shower once in a while 

 is beneficial, but frequent rainfalls destroy all chance of a good 

 honey flow, as such induce also a low temperature. Even with 

 fair weather it sometimes happens that the temperature rules too 

 low for the secretion of nectar; but usually if none is stored 

 during a fine season, it implies either that the district is poor in 

 honey plants, or else that there are too many colonies in one 

 place. 



The question of over-stocking is one that has received con- 

 siderable attention, though nothing satisfactory has been arrived 

 at in regard to this matter. It may safely be said, however, that 

 in any fairly good district roo colonies will each put out as much 

 surplus as one only. But with a large number, however, there are 

 greater risks, and the whole cannot receive the same attention 

 individually that would be given to a few. It will generally be 

 found that it is not the district which is at fault, but rather 

 that our stocks are not always ready when the first or only glut 

 of the season occurs. Honey is seldom secreted so abundantly 

 as when everything is bursting into new life, but it so happens 



