THE BEE-KEEPER IN SUMMER. 157 



And if he is thus active and careful, and manages 

 well, the quantity of honey he will get, in favourable 

 seasons, is quite astonishing. It is a very common 

 thing to get fifty or sixty pounds of pure good 

 honey in the comb, not only from a single hive, 

 but as an average from all the frame-hives in the 

 apiary. Some experienced bee - keepers take a 

 great deal more than this, even an average of loo 

 pounds of comb honey, and more of extracted, per 

 hive.* 



And all this harvest of honey is of value. If sold 

 it will realise a fair profitable price ; but then it must 

 be carefully taken, and neatly put up for sale. Very 

 much of its value depends upon the clean, attractive 

 form in which it is offered, but of this you will learn 

 elsewhere. 



But now once more autumn comes, and it is no 

 longer the time of abundant flowers, and the few flowers 

 there are give but little, if any, honey, except in the 

 heather districts. It is the time when people have their 

 holidays, and the bees think they also may have theirs. 

 But they never take holiday, remember, while they 

 have any work to do. As long as there is honey to 

 be had, and room in which to store it, they will work. 

 And thus it is that many bee-keepers find it most 

 profitable, when ordinary country flowers are over, to 

 take their hives to the heaths, if such are near at 

 hand, for the heather gives beautiful honey, and 



* ' I have had an average of loo pounds per hive for many years 

 past, and others, I believe, have had as much. I consider that 

 nearly double this quantity can be had by the extractor,'— T. W. 

 Cowan. 



