206 THE BEK keeper's MANUAL. 



the Apiarian aims at obtaining a large quantity of honey in 

 any one season, he cannot at the furthest, more than double 

 the number of his stocks : nor can he do this, unless they 

 are all strong, and the season favorable. The moment that 

 he aims, in any one season, at a more rapid increase, he 

 must not only renounce the idea of having any surplus hon- 

 ey, but must expect to purchase food for the support of his 

 colonies, unless he is willing to see them all perish by star- 

 vation. The time, food, care and skill required to multiply 

 stocks with very great rapidity, in our short and uncertain 

 climate, are so great'that not one Apiarian in a hundred can 

 expect 10 make it profitable ; while the great mass of those 

 who attempt it, will be almost sure, at the close of the sea- 

 son, to find themselves in possession of stocks which have 

 been so managed as to be of very little value. 



Before explaining some other methods of artificial swarm- 

 ing, which I have employed to great advantage, I shall en- 

 deavor to impress upon the mind of the bee-keeper, the 

 great importance of thoroughly understanding, each season, 

 the precise object at which he is aiming, before he enters on 

 the work of increasing his colonies. If his object is, in any 

 one season, to get the largest yield of surplus honey, he 

 must at once make up his mind to be content with a very 

 moderate increase of stocks. If, on the contrary, he desires 

 to multiply his colonies, say, three or four fold, he must be 

 prepared, not only to relinquish the expectation of obtaining 

 any surplus honey, if the season should prove unfavorable, 

 but to purchase food for the support of his bees. Rapid mul- 

 tiplication of colonies, and large harvests of surplus honey 

 cannot, in the very nature of things, be secure in our cli- 

 mate, in any one season. 



If the number of colonies is to be increased to a large 

 extent, then the bees in the Apiary will be tasked to the ut» 



