48 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING 
people who keep bees secured surplus honey worth 
the name. 
To secure honey in quantity it is necessary that 
the stocks should be at their strongest just at 
the time when the main honey flow occurs in their 
particular locality—just at the time, neither before 
nor after. This is only to be secured by having 
good queens at the heads of the colonies, and by, 
careful attention in the way. of management as 
described in the previous chapter. At the time 
when the honey flow is about to commence the 
brood-chamber of all hives should be a solid mass 
of brood, and if it is not in that condition it must 
be made so. This may be done by uniting the 
stocks as described elsewhere. It is a common 
failing with the majority of bee-keepers to esti- 
mate the strength of their apiary by the number 
of hives containing bees. This is entirely wrong, 
for often half of the hives contain bees that are 
but remnants of colonies. Such hives are of no 
use at all for honey production, and left to them- 
selves they might secure sufficient honey for their 
own consumption, but that would be all. If, how- 
ever, they are united under one roof, making up 
a colony packed with bees and brood, good re- 
sults will be secured if the season be favourable. 
That is the great secret of honey production— 
hives packed with bees and brood at the right 
time. Two colonies of bees under one roof will 
secure far more honey than if they were separate, 
and therefore as honey is what is required, unite, 
