12 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



straw hives whole apiaries are des- 

 troyed, and sometimes of twenty- 

 five colonies, only two have been 

 saved) but they have also yielded 

 a good profit annually, and often 

 given from thlrt3^ to fifty per cent 

 interest : not to mention the several 

 royal apiaries, which I have con- 

 ducted with the best success, and 

 the profits of which are of no small 

 account, and which may be greatly 

 increased. Among these are no- 

 ticeably the large apiaries which 

 are established in grand style in 

 the Schonbusch near Aschaffen- 

 burg, for His Majesty, the prince 

 at Mainz, so interested in all 

 branches of agriculture and econ- 

 omy, so indiistrlous and honorable. 

 In view of such convincing proof 

 as this, it were useless to mention 

 the prejudices of those who would 

 follow the good old customs of 

 their forefathers in the manage- 

 ment of bees, who would rather 

 sacrifice a part of them every year, 

 and leave the others to their fate ; 

 or, again, if I should endeavor to 

 cure the fault-finding spirit of those 

 who make much of trifling matters 

 and who either overlook and mis- 

 take the essential, or view them 

 from a wrong standpoint. This 

 idle talk is a light fog which will 

 scatter, and such will learn to see 

 better in the coming light, and dis- 

 pense with their prejudices in due 

 time. 



That this method of managing 

 the bees is suited for all countries, 

 it will not be necessary to prove. 

 If it is practicable and useful in such 

 countries where you cannot find a 

 great deal of food for the bees, it 



will certainly maintain its superior- 

 ity the more in such where like the 

 iZatcZen-parts, the honeyed flowers 

 are vei-y plentiful. 



Instead of cutting out the honey, 

 it would be easier to remove the 

 full sections of surplus honey and 

 wiser to take from the bees only as 

 much as they can spare^ It will 

 be better to allow them to renew 

 their combs from time to time, than 

 to let them grow black and their 

 cells narrow. 



The amount of profit, resulting 

 from beekeeping depends, of course, 

 even with the best treatment, on 

 the strength of the colonies, the 

 locality, and the blessing of heaven. 

 Colonies, which from various causes, 

 have become weak, cannot be 

 counted as among those which 

 yield the profit, as first-class. 



Every other year always gives an 

 abundant 3' leld of honey. Alread}', 

 now, as we still have the third part 

 of the summer before us (with us 

 the least part) for the bees, I count 

 from twenty colonies, by this and the 

 honey-dew, causing a thick yellow- 

 ish fog, at least 250 maas or 750 

 pounds of honey already stored, 

 besides those that have swarmed 

 and others from wlilch queens have 

 been reared. This holds good with 

 other colonies, and ever^'^ bee- 

 keeper, who has made his arrange- 

 ments after m}' method testifies to 

 the extraordinary produce of his 

 apiary. 



A few daj-s ago, I had a call 

 from a sensible beekeeper, a man 

 of great knowledge, who examined 

 my hives and assured me that he 

 had not believed me, from the first 



