Oettl’s Golden Rule
“‘When a large flock of sheep,’ says Oettl, ‘is grazing on a limited area, there may soon be a deficiency of pasturage. But this cannot be asserted of bees, as a good honey-district cannot readily be overstocked with them. To-day, when the air is moist and warm, the plants may yield a superabundance of nectar ; while to-morrow, being cold and wet, there may be a total want of it. When there is sufficient heat and moisture, the saccharine juices of plants will readily fill the nectaries, and will be quickly replenished when carried off by the bees. Every cold night checks the flow of honey, and every clear, warm day re-opens the fountain. The flowers expanded to-day must be visited while open ; for, if left to wither, their stores are lost. The same remarks will apply substantially in the case of honey-dews. Hence, bees cannot, as many suppose, collect to-morrow what is left ungathered to-day, as sheep may graze hereafter on the pasturage they do not need now. Strong colonies and large Apiaries are in a position to collect ample stores when forage suddenly abounds, while, by patient, persevering industry, they may still gather a sufficiency, and even a surplus, when the supply is small, but more regular and protracted.’
“The same able Apiarian, whose golden rule in bee-keeping is, to keep none but strong colonies, says that, in the lapse of twenty years since he established his Apiary, there has not occurred a season in which the bees did not procure adequate supplies for themselves, and a surplus besides. Sometimes, indeed, he came near despairing, when April, May, and June were continually cold, wet, and unproductive; but in July, his strong colonies speedily filled their garners, and stored up some treasure for him ; while, in such seasons, small colonies could not even gather enough to keep them from starvation."
Jan Nepomuk Oettl Bohemian priest and promoter of apiculture (1801-1866)
Reported in A Practical Treatise on the Hive and the Honey-Bee Fourth Edition, 1879, by the Reverend Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth