320 AUSTRALASIAN 
CHAPTER 233er 
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 
