CALENDAR. 169 



harvest — and honey-taking is the most unpleasant work 

 the hee-keeper has to perform. 



Before the honey is taken, another examination of 

 every hive should he carefully made — and hives pretty 

 full of well-formed worker-combs selected for stocks. 

 From 40 to 50 lb. each is probably the most eligible 

 weights for stock-hives in September. But their weights 

 may range from 20 to 60 lb. each. Strong stocks 

 cause no anxiety to their owners, and wiU yield as much 

 profit as twice or thrice their number of weak ones. 

 And now is the time to make stocks strong for another 

 year. The bees of the honey-hives should be driven 

 into empty ones and united to those selected for keep- 

 ing. Thus every hive may be made strong in bees. 

 Those who know better than destroy valuable hives in 

 the brimstone-pit, should beg the cottagers to preserve 

 their bees, instead of suffocating them with sulphur. 

 Those who have no bees of their own to strengthen 

 hives, should drive the swarms of cottagers, and give 2s. 

 6d. per swarm for them. For years I have bought con- 

 demned bees in September at Is. per lb. ; but now there 

 is great difficulty in finding cottagers in this locality who 

 wiU part with their bees. The sulphur-pit will soon be 

 a thing of the past. Those who use bar-frame hives 

 may strengthen their stocks by taking some honey-bars 

 from their stocks and putting brood-bars from honey- 

 hives ia their places. The brood that is hatched in 

 August and September lives till spring ; and hives with 

 plenty of brood in them now wiU be in good condition 

 in March and April. Six sheets of brood now indicate 

 five seams of bees in March ; and five seams of bees, as 

 large as the crown of a man's hat, in a cold morning in 

 March, indicate that the hive is one of great strength. 



If any queens in an apiary are three years old, they 



