Advantages In Transferring

Categories: FALL MANAGEMENT.
Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained

I would now like to show the advantages I derived in transferring the

twenty swarms before mentioned. 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

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

have rejected most of it. The remainder, 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, amounting 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.