a FIFTY YEABS AMoKG THE BfeES 



part of the honey gathered by the bees. Adrian Getaz com- 

 putes that at least 200 pounds of honey is needed for home 

 consumption by an average colony. So far as enthusiasm and 

 interest are concerned, I do not believe my stock of those com- 

 modities is any less than it was fifty years ago. A born bee- 

 keeper never loses his enthusiasm. 



TOTAL CROP EATHEB THAN PER COLONY. 



Some one may possibly ask, "If you can do so much better 

 with 67 colonies, why not restrict yourself to that number?" 

 But I can't do any better; at least not in any average season. 

 For it is not the 3deld per colony I care for, unless it should 

 be to boast over it ; what I care for is tbe total amount of net 

 money I can get from my bees. In the year 1897 my average 

 per colony was 71% pounds, only about three-fifths as much as 

 in 1881; but as I had in 1897, 239 colonies, ray total crop was 

 17,150 pounds, or more than twice as much as in 1881. 



A BAD YEAR. 



In the year 1887 my crop of honey was a little more than 

 half a pound per colony, and in the fall I fed 2802 pounds of 

 granulated sugar to keep the bees from starving in winter. 

 But I could not tell then, neither can I now tell whether it was 

 because the season was so bad or because the field was over- 

 stocked, for I had 363 colonies ia four apiaries. Possibly if I 

 had had only half as many bees, the balance might have been 

 on the other side ef the ledger. But I don't know. 



Somewhere there surely is a limit beyond which one cannot 

 profitably increase the number of colonies in an apiary, but 

 just where that limit is can perhaps never be learned. If I 

 were obliged to make a guess, I should say about 100 colonies in 

 one apiary is the limit in my locality. 



If I were to live my life over again, and knew in advance 

 that I should be a beekeeper, I never would locate in a place 

 with only one source of surplus. When white clover fails here 

 the bottom drops out. Unfortunately the years in which the 

 bottom drops out have been unpleasantly frequent. 



