bee-keeper's manual. 271 



head, and placed in hives of the same size of the orig- 

 inal one ? There would not be a drop of surplus honey 

 stored up by either family, and in all probability, they 

 would not be able to exist through the month of Novem- 

 ber, unless fed, much less through the winter. It is on 

 the principle that " in unity there is strength." Four 

 rods when together may not be broken, but take each 

 separately, and the whole are easily rent asunder. The 

 philosophy of the failure of four families of 3,750 bees 

 each, to gather as much honey as one family of 15,000, 

 lies here : — it requires nearly as many bees to remain 

 constantly at home, in each of the four hives, for the 

 purpose of keeping up that degree of heat that is neces- 

 sary within, that it does in the hive where the whole 

 15,000 reside ; consequently, it follows, that in one case, 

 perhaps, 10,000 bees would be constantly on the wing, 

 and in the other case of the four separate families, not 

 over 1,250 could be spared from each, making only 5,000 

 bees as the actual number of gatherers employed by the 

 whole of them. 



In consequence of this state of things, more bees are 

 lost, by a desire to increase our families too rapidly, than 

 from any other particular cause. It is truly said, " that 

 experience is the best schoolmaster ;" and I have paid 

 pretty dearly for my knowledge. Feeling anxious, one 

 season, to increase the number of my families, to the 

 greatest possible extent, I divided my largest swarms, 

 and some families that did not swarm but once, I drove 

 out, and made two famihes, where but one existed before. 

 This course well-nigh ruined my whole apiary ; and I 



