8 A Modem Bee-Farm 



certain he can manage more. With that number no assistance is 

 required, but when greater extensions are decided upon, the 

 apiarist should get some inteUigent lad, and take the greatest 

 care in teaching him to become an expert assistant. It is 

 surprising how quickly a youngster takes to the various manipula- 

 tions, and in this line he will more often than not, be of more 

 service than a man at much higher wages. 



Where the apiarist is capable of making-up most of his 

 own appliances, his time will be fully occupied during the wmter, 

 and then timber will stand in place of many of the articles 

 enumerated, making a considerable reduction in cost: The 

 owner's labour in the apiary has, of course, not been estimated, as 

 that can only be valued by the balance of profit shown at the end 

 of the season.-^The labourer is worthy of his hire — (profit). 



The Average Yields per Hive 



for both comb and extracted honey, taking a series of years, have 

 been placed very low, but in a fairly good district the bee-keeper 

 should have no trouble in far exceeding those figures, providing 

 there are not more than 150 colonies kept at any one place. In 

 a very favourable locality, or where the owner plants bee forage, 

 the average will be still higher, while from 200 to 300 stocks may 

 stand in one apiary without showing any diminution of the 

 " out-put " per hive. 



The editor of the British Bee Journal states that he obtained 

 1360 lbs. from seven hives. This was extracted honey, but his 

 results in comb have often exceeded 100 lbs. per hive. These 

 weights were obtained from a limited number of stocks ; it will 

 be seldom, however, that such returns will be gained where a large 

 number are to be managed. I have myself had 50 lbs. from a 

 single colony in seven days ; and have had a queen whose bees 

 in 1886, without attempting to swarm, gave upwards of 250 lbs. of 

 honey, about 200 lbs. of which were in nicely finished sections. 

 Such results show only what is possible if the apiarist will always 

 breed from the best strains, as set forth in the chapter upon that 

 subject. 



