FALL MANAGEMENT. 821 



We will suppose that each family, from the ^first of 

 October till April, consumed twenty pounds of honey. 

 That in the centre combs, where there is most bee- 

 bread, &c., is eaten first ; if any is left, it is at the top 

 and outside. If I had attempted to take out and 

 strain this twenty pounds in the fall, it would have 

 been so mixed with dead brood, and bee-bread, that I 

 probably should have rejected most of it. The re- 

 mainder, when strained, might have been five pounds, 

 not more. The market price for it is about ten cents 

 per pound ; amount fifty cents. We will say the new 

 hive kept through the winter to receive the bees in 

 the spring contained fifteen pounds ; this would also 

 have averaged about ten cents per pound, amount- 

 ing to $1.50. All that a stock of this kind costs 

 me appears to be just $2.00, and worth at least 

 $5.00. The advantage in changing twenty would be 

 $60.00. The labor of transferring will offset against 

 the trouble of straining, preparing, and the expense 

 of getting the honey to market. 



ANOTHER METHOD OF UNITINQ TWO FAMILIES. 



I have occasionally adopted yet another method of 

 making a good stock from two poor ones, which the 

 reader may prefer. When all your old stocks have 

 been reinforced that need it, and you still have some 

 Bwarms with too few bees and too little honey for safety 

 as they are, two or more can'be united. The fact, which 

 has been thoroughly tested, that two families of bees, 

 when united and wintered in one hive, will consume 

 but little, if any more, than each of them would sepa- 

 14* 



