OCTOBER.
At the commencement of this month, continue to feed such stocks, if any, as are short of honey, yet are supplied with a good amount of comb in which to store honey. As the yield of honey from flowers closes this month at its end remove all boxes from the hives. Such as are partially filled with comb or honey may be set in a cold, dry place, and remain for use another year. If placed where they will freeze, and then sealed up carefully so the moth miller cannot get in, they will be in good condition when wanted next season. Boxes that have comb about a third full or even less, are finished very quickly by the bees. Be sure to keep all such boxes for the next season. You probably have a few queens in your miniature hives. Look over your stocks, and if any are found queenless, or with diseased queens, give them a new and prolific one.
NOVEMBER.
The first of November, if not already done, exchange comb frames, from stocks deficient in stores to winter, with such as can spare a frame of honey. Do this until all have stores sufficient for winter. Twenty pounds of honey will render them safe until you begin to feed in the spring. From the middle to the last of November is usually the time to prepare the hives for winter, by packing with hay or straw as directed in another place. This should not be done until a few days before steady cold weather sets in. Care should be exercised not to put it off until it is too cold; neither should it be done too early. Be sure to pack thoroughly. Success in wintering depends in a great degree upon thorough work in packing the hives.
DECEMBER.
In this month procure your lumber and all material for making hives, boxes, etc., to be worked up during the winter. If there are small villages or large cities near by, you will find this month a good time to market your honey, if you have any on hand. With a little effort you can have ready customers for your goods, or at least a portion of it. Honey in glass boxes is in such nice shape, that any one who likes a fine article, will pay a liberal price for it, after they have once tested its quality. In a few years you will have established a trade with ready customers, near home, at remunerative prices.
CHAPTER XX.
CONCLUSION.
WE often hear this question asked: "Are bees profitable?" and the replies given are various, contradictory and amusing, varying in accordance with the honesty, experience, skill and success of the bee-keeper. Such as have attempted bee keeping with the old fashioned, square box hives, under the old system of management based on fire and brimstone, will say there is no profit in bees, and that you must not molest them at all; if you do, "they will run out, and you will lose your luck."
There is another class, who have adopted all the extravagant fancies of the patent bee hive venders, paying large sums of money for hives worse than useless, with what are claimed to be patent fixtures—expecting a sudden fortune as the result, and found the whole thing a fraud. Perhaps they have been duped in this way a half-dozen times or more, and always with the same result. This class will tell you emphatically, that everything pertaining to bees is a humbug and a cheat—no money in them, etc.