BEE KEEPING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1243, 25 September 1875, Page 18

BEE KEEPING.

The Apiarian Exhibition at the Crystal Palace last year gave an impetus to beekeeping, of which the good effects are already beginning to be felt. It certainly seems wonderful &o profitable an occupation has not been more extensively engag* din by our rural population. The bee-keeper need Fear no bailiff's wrath, no baron's blame, His is untaxed and undisputed game. And yet there is scarcely a cottage garden to be seen with a proper complement of bee-hives. Jn Mr Hunters Manual of Bee-keeping there at c many most interesting chapters on the lvstory of bees, their wonderful structure, ways, and habits, which, the more they are looked into, the more marvellous they appear. The profitable keeping of bees is also fully gone into, aud we are given niiny curious items respecting bee-keeping in different countries. Prance, Germany, and the United States j.ll have numeroi % and extensive apiaries beyond those which belong to every cottage, where there is every facility for keeping these industrious and profitable workeis :—: — ' ' Calif orniar may, probably, boast of one of the largest and certainly the most productive apiary in the world, and its owner, Mr Harbison, undoub:edly occupies the position of one of the foremast bee-masters, at any rate, as far as aioueymaking from the business is concerned. This gentleman has now 2000 colonies, which last year produced 150,0001b. , or 67 tons, of surplus honey of very excollent quality, netting by sales the nice liitle sum of 830,000 ! The labour in attending to all these bees is dono by eight young man, who are apprentices to the business, and some of them ai'e very expert in apiarian manipulations." In every rural district in Spain bees are kept, and it is calcula'ed that in one province in Russia there are nearly four bee-hives to every human being :—: — "The reason (writes Mr Hunter) why bee-keeping is so industriously carried on in Russia is twofold. Firstly, because the peasants use honey instead of sugar ; and, secondly, because wax tapers te the v«lue of 1,200,000 roubles (nearly £182,000) are required for the churches. I Buschen states the quantity of honey annually produced in European Russia to be 600,0001b. to 700,000tb. (9,643 to 11,250 tons), and a proportionate quantity of wax." Speaking of early swarming, the author Bays i — " Early swarms are always desirable if the weather be fine and warm, but if it be succeeded by cold or wet, then the eaily Swarm becomes a misfortune ; in the first place, the bees have neither combs nor food, and being unable to go out foraging, must necessarily perish unless fed regularly. The mother hive also, lately so crowded, misses the warmth generated by its departed population, and the nurses with difficulty keep the temperature sufficiently liigh to mature the brood, so that in this contingency it will be seen it ia more desirable for. the swarm to israe later, when tho weather can with more ; certaint/ be depended, on, Swarming is

an act of necessity, not choice, and is a provision of Nature to relieve an overpopulated colony. It is, in fact, aii emigration on a large scale."

Amoug all the schemes promulgated to benefit the agricultural classes, none are so good as those which start them on the road to independence. Allotment farms and gardens, the keeping of cows, pigs, and poultry, are all excellent, but, above all, is the keeping of bees, for which but a trifling outlay is required to commence operations, and no matter how small the plot of ground surrounding the cottage, it will suffice for a stand of hives, and the undaunted workers will go far in search of the nectar which they so industriously turn into honey for the benefit of their owners. Once let the cottager feel the benefiti of bee-keeping, and he will not be likely to relinquish so remunerative an occupation.- — London Paper.