AUTUMN MANAGEMENT. 227 
With frame hives, of course, this operation will be 
shnple enough. 
Under the head of ‘‘Common Straw Hives,” we 
remarked upon the usual mode of obtaining posses- 
sion of the honey by means of suffocation with 
brimstone ; the stocks of the second or third year’s 
standing being commonly the ones selected for de- 
struction. If, however, such stocks can be made 
strong and healthy in the way we have been detail- 
ing, good policy would point to the colonies of the 
present year as those affording the richest harvest of 
honey, and that of the best quality, as being in new 
combs. These will never be of more value for the 
market than in the first autumn. Such of the 
older stocks, moreover, as have sent out swarms in 
the past season will of course possess young queens, 
and this fact will give them also an advantage as to 
the quantity of their stores. Under any cir- 
cumstances, it is clear that in gaining possession of 
the honey, destruction of the bees may be avoided 
by adopting the fuming and uniting plan, instead of 
that of suffocation; for whether the hive be new or 
old, rich or poor, the same principle applies, with ao 
amount of time, trouble, or expense, greater than 
under the brimstone system. The plea of necessity 
no longer exists for a wanton waste of valuable life; 
and to this point the attention of the cottager, in 
particular, might surely be directed, as one often 
involving his future profits. Let him know that it 
is his interest not to kill his bees; but, when 
expelled from one hive, to unite them to another, 
where augmented numbers will require no more 
Q 2 
