86 
BEECULTUilE. 
bo long as the honey harvest abounds they seem not to think 
of robbing. May we not, therefore, attribute it to their ex- 
cessive industry? for in this they also excel, working both 
later in the evening and earlier in the morning, as well as 
much later in the season, than the native bee. Our honey 
harvest usually, in this section of country, terminates about 
the middle of July. Last year I found them building combs 
and storing surplus honey during a great part of August and 
September. They doubtless obtained it from some source 
unfrequented by the native bee, as the latter were at that 
time consuming the honey they had previously gathered. 
As queens continue to lay in the summer and fall, so long as 
their workers continue to obtain supplies of honey from 
abroad, they of course breed later in the season than the na- 
tive bee. This is of vastly great advantage in sections of 
country where they are compelled by cold to lie dormant so 
great a part of the year. As they seldom swarm late in the 
season, the bees bred at this period enable the colony to en- 
ter the winter with a large population of young bees, the 
larger portion of which survive until one or two numerous 
broods have been hatched in the following spring, and the 
colony prepared in numbers to swarm, as well as in every 
other respect to avail themselves of all the benefits of the 
honey harvest the moment it presents itself. To this fact, 
and their great powers of endurance, I attribute much of 
their productiveness. There is, however, one other most 
striking feature which, doubtless, is greatly contributivo to it. 
I allude to the rapidity of their breeding. As soon as the 
weather becomes sufficiently warm in the spring to prevent 
the chilling of their more hardy brood, if you will open the 
hive and examine their combs you will find entire sheets of 
it filled with young in process of maturation, all attended by 
a few scattering bees, presenting almost the appearance of a 
deserted colony. This enables them to far outstrip native 
colonies of like size in building up a strong population early 
in the season, which is vital to their prosperity; for, if the 
bees are hatched and ready to enter upon their work as soon 
as the harvest presents itself, all that can be done may be 
and will; but (as is the case, probably, in six-tenths of all 
stocks of native bees,) if not hatched until the harvest is one- 
half or more passed, of course much is lost; and when we 
consider that, in tho greater part of the country lying north 
