A SELF-SUPPORTING HOME 



now the average amount of honey put on the 

 market each year is upward of a hundred 

 million pounds, representing a money value of 

 from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000. 



In a favorable locality one hive, with its 

 average colony of thirty-five thousand workers 

 and a queen, will turn out from thirty to forty 

 pounds of honey, besides the fifteen or twenty 

 necessary to feed the hive through the winter. 



A few hives, in an ordinary country dis- 

 trict, should each bring in a clear $2 a year 

 profit at the lowest estimate. On a poultry 

 and fruit farm where clover, sunflower, and 

 millet are grown for the poultry, the yield of 

 honey should be much larger, if the apiary 

 is restricted to twenty or thirty hives. Their 

 care will infringe but little on working hours. 

 They feed themselves, so expense is confined 

 to the necessary new hives for the fresh col- 

 onies, comb foundations, and other equally 

 small outlays. 



If you commence by purchasing a colony 

 and hive that has been well cared for during 



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