Some writers on bee-culture attach much importance to the particular position in which an apiary stands and the aspect towards which it faces. A southern, or rather a south-eastern aspect, is the one which we recommend. Our reason for this preference is that we deem it very important for the bees to have the first of the morning sun. Bees are early risers, and should have every inducement given them for the maintenance of so excellent a practice. A few years since, many strong opinions were expressed in favour of a northern aspect for hives. The chief reason given for those opinions, though very plausible, appears to us to be a very partial and inadequate one. It was said that, when the hives face the south, the bees may, like the incautious swallow in the fable, be tempted to fly abroad in the transient winter sunshine, and then perish in the freezing atmosphere when a passing cloud intervenes. But it is a very easy matter, if considered needful, to screen the entrance by fixing up matting so as to intercept the rays of the sun. At our own apiary we make no alteration in winter, under the belief that the bees will take care of themselves and that they seldom venture out when the weather is unsuitable.
Columella gave a number of directions on this point, the essence of which may be stated as follows. If in a valley it will be easier for the loaded bees to return home than if on a hill; it must not be "exposed to noisome smells, nor to the din of men or cattle;" it should be near a shallow running stream with pebbles for the bees to alight on, but not near deep water with steep banks'; and the trees near should be low, and convenient for manipulation in swarming.
The vicinity of sugar warehouses, or other places of temptation of the kind, is certain to prove prejudicial if not fatal to an apiary. The beeish instinctive love for sweets, like all other good things, has its bad side, and here we see it developed into a propensity to acquire on the shortest and easiest though most suicidal method. Mr. Langstroth tells us that he once furnished a sweet-shop will gauze windows and doors, when the bees "alighted on the wire by thousands, fairly squealing with vexation," and in desperation they descended the chimney, which had to be stopped in like manner.
§ III. PASTURAGE FOR BEES.
"Bees work for man; and yet they never bruise
Their master's flower, but leave it, having done,
As fair as ever, and as fit for use."
Apiarians generally agree in the opinion that very little can be done in the way of providing any special forage for bees. Yet bee-fanciers are always interested in observing which are the flowers that the bees prefer; and there are certain well-established conclusions as to the kind of districts and seasons which are the likeliest to produce a good honey harvest. There is an old saying, that a country which produces the finest wool also yields the best honey; and a pastoral district is decidedly better than one under tillage. The principle of the matter is, that the bees are best suited with a long dry season—an early spring, a hot summer, and a late autumn. As not one of these blessings can be commanded by the apiarian, his art must be applied to providing some mitigation of the injury suffered by the bees when the season is short or wet. For early springs the crocus, the blue hepatica, and the violet all afford good supplies of pollen and honey, and, if cultivated near the apiary, will be of great service when the wild flowers are backward. All varieties of the willow and poplar furnish early supplies of honey, as well as of the propolis to be presently described; the blossoms of the gooseberry and currant are very useful for the bees in May. Wet, when it enters flowers of any kind, prevents, the tongue of the bee from reaching the secret source of honey. On this account it is well to know, as does the bee, that the drooping blossoms of the raspberry escape the effect of the showers, and honey is gathered from them when other flowers are drenched within as well as without. For a similar reason borage (Borago officinalis) is valuable for bees, and also because that plant continues to flower until the frosts set in. The honey both from raspberry blossoms and borage is very superior. Mr. Langstroth says, that "the precipitous and rocky lands of New England, which abound with the wild red raspberry, might be made almost as valuable as some of the vine-clad terraces of the mountain districts of Europe." The golden rod and also asters afford superior honey for autumn gathering. Dzierzon strongly recommends buckwheat being sown in the winter stubbles on behalf of the bees, and he tries hard to persuade farmers that it is to their interest to cultivate it. It should be named that all the ordinary fruit blossoms, especially that of the apple, supply abundant store for bees.
It is, however, to wild or field flowers that the bee-master must chiefly look for the raw material on which his myriad artisans shall exert their skill. The white clover of the pasture,[32] the wild thyme on the hill, the heather on the moors, the furze and the broom on the sandy waste, offer exhaustless stores for a greater number of bees than can ever be located near them. Lime trees, when in blossom, and mignonette are also most valuable resources; and there are two or three peculiar sources of honey which one would not have suspected, as, for instance, the blossoms of the onion plant, of turnips, and, in still greater degree, the flower of the mustard plant.
[32] It is a good practice to induce the owners of adjacent fields to sow clover seed.