146 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



price for such, honey? Fifteenpenoe per pound, or 6s. 6d. 

 for the Scotch pint of 5 lb. If there he only 20 Ih. in a 

 hive, we drum the bees out of it into one empty, save 

 cross-sticks and guide-comb. In this way we get 25s. 

 worth of honey, and another swarm, which we term "a 

 turnout," from the stock-hive, which has before yielded 

 one or two swarms. Thus we get two or three good 

 swarms and 20 lb. of honey early in June from every 

 stock-hive. These turnouts are generally a shade better 

 than the second swarms from the same hives ; and when 

 no second swarms have been obtained or taken from the 

 hives, the turnouts are very large swarms indeed, and 

 require large hives. By practising tliis mode of taking 

 honey from stock-hives three weeks after first swarming, 

 our hives have combs beautifully young and fresli, free 

 from foul brood, and never overburdened with farina or 

 bee-bread. Then there is the encouragement of profits 

 already in the pocket, and two months of summer yet to 

 come. 



A hive should be about 42 or 45 lb. weight to yield 

 20 lb. of honey. Sometimes we pass sentence against 

 hives of less weight, drum the bees out on the twenty- 

 first day after swarming, and take honey from them; and 

 sometimes, instead of taking their honey, after the bees 

 have been turned out of them, we place them in a dry 

 room till autumn ; and if we then find it will be advan- 

 tageous to keep them for stock, and take the honey from 

 heavier hives, they are refilled with bees taken from the 

 honey-hives, and placed in the garden. 



The process of turning bees out is simply that of driv- 

 ino' them into empty hives. In the ease of artificial 

 swarming we drum but a few minutes, but when we wish 

 to drive all the bees out, we drum for fifteen minutes or 

 more. When there is brood in a hive the bees are loath 



