[5] It is well to confine the bees when a large number of robbers are inside—a larger number if possible than the swarm itself, for being confined a few days, they will make that hive their home, and aid in defending its stores against other robbers with as much energy as the bees of the original swarm.
Before taking the trouble to remove a hive as here directed, care should be taken to be certain that the bees are being robbed. You can be sure whether it is your own bees or others that are robbing, by sprinkling them with flour as they come from the hive which you suspect is being robbed, and watching your other hives, to see if those you have marked enter them, being very careful that you are not deceived by the dust from some species of blossoms, which adhere to the body of the bee, and might be mistaken for the flour.
Bees when plundering a stock will often keep at their work until dark, some of them being unable to find their hive by reason of the darkness. Honest workers are not found abroad at that time, and by the way, this is a very good test of robbing. In concluding this chapter, I advise again: Know the condition of your stocks at all times. If any have too few bees, contract the entrances in accordance with that number of bees to pass. Preventative is much better than cure in this case.
CHAPTER X.
PROFITS OF BEE KEEPING.
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, and even at the present time, by the ordinary methods of bee-keeping, if a profit of five dollars from one hive of bees in one season was gained, it was considered "good luck." You know there is no system in the ordinary methods of bee-keeping. It is either "good luck" or "bad luck;"—all "luck" and "chance," anyway.
In one year they get five dollars profit from a stock of bees; the next honey season they get nothing, and the bees all die in the winter; or perhaps they will survive that winter, and the next season swarm, and fly away to the woods; or perhaps refuse to swarm, and fly away to the woods; or perhaps refuse to swarm, and remain idly clustered on the front of the hive throughout the entire honey season, and die for want of food before the winter is half gone.
Bee keeping by the ordinary methods is a very precarious and uncertain occupation. The profits are small at best, and losses large and frequent.
With my Controllable Hive and common sense System of Bee Management (as described in this work,) founded on correct and scientific principles, bee keeping is reduced to a science. There is no "luck," no "guess-work," no "chance," about it. There can be no loss in bee-keeping without a cause; there can be no gain without a full and correct understanding of the natural habits and requirements of bees. A correct knowledge of the subject insures success.