A BEE AND POULTRY FARM.

Otago Witness, Issue 1555, 27 August 1881, Page 8

A BEE AND POULTRY FARM.

We have from time to time reoeived inquiries as to whether poultry*raising on an extensive scale would pay in Ofcago, and have always felt dubious in recommending Its adoption withoat an auxiliary. In the vioinity of large towns, suoh as Dunedln,; lnveroargill, or Oamaru, the most suitable auxiliary would no doubt be pigs, as food oonld be collected in the shape of household, waste at a small oost, not alone from hotels and boarding-houses, but also from private houses, by energetic persons who made a business of this kind a speoialty. A substitute for pigs would, however, be reqnlred in oases where distance from large centres renders the keeping of pigs on this principle impracticable, and it has ooourred to ub that a better one could not be found than bees. There is not suf&olent demand for fanoy poultry in Otago— -at fanoy prices, of course —to render poultry-keeping alone remunerative, A person who thoroughly studied the markets, and was able to have a large number of turkeys, geese; and ducks ready for slaughter at Christmas and New Year, combined with a largo produotion of eggs during . the laying season, would no doubt do well /or blx months of the year j bat the moulting season oomes on, and the fowls stop laying for four or five months, and the revenue derivable from the poultry-yard Is reduced to zero, soarcely more than paying expenses It is at this time that the bees would more particularly play their part, as a an amount of revenue would still be derivable from the sale of the honey ; and we trust that the Berieß of artioles at present being published in these columns may be the meaaa of inducing some of our readers to take up and give a fair trial to bee-keeping. The undertaking has proved exceedingly profitable in the United: States and Canada, in both of which oountries muoh attention has been paid to It ; and we see no reason why it should not be' equally Buoceasful in Otago, if conduoted on modern principles. The matter has reoeived oonsiderableattention in theneighbouringdis * triot of Canterbury, and we notice from our exchanges that a bee farm is about to be entab-; lished in the vioinity of Ohristchuroh, In reference to the projeot, last week's Canterbury Times says :— " A suitable piece of land for tha establishment of an extensive apiary has been secured at the Sandhills,, and a preliminary stock of forty strong hives has been placed on the ground. These hiveß are being worked on the bar frame principle, and it ib intended to place the yield of honey in the market in the form which has during the past fewyears beea so popular in England and elsewhere. Slight frames of wood are placed in position in a ohamber in the upper part of eaoh hive, and these frames— or sections, as they are technically styled -are speedily filled by the industrious insects with honey in virgin oomb. Such sections oan be arranged to , contain any given weight of honey, one pound frames being a speoially saleable size." Our contemporary further remarks :—": — " New Zealand is being looked to as a suitable field for bee farming by leading apiarians in other parts of the world. Amongst others, Mr J. Rutherford, of Strathoy, Ontario, is at the present time causing information to be obtained here, with the view of settling in the Oolony for the express purpose of establishing bee farms upon a systematic basis, Respecting his operations in Canada, Mr Rutherford says :— ' W« keep the German black bees, the Italian, the Holy Land, and the Cyprian varieties; and for the Holy Land queen- bee with whioh started our stook of that speoies we paid L 3.' 8o far as the proposed New Zealand undertaking is concerned, Mr Rutherford remarks that he would be prepared to incur heavy expenses fur some time, and without expecting any very app'cota,' l& pecuniary results. The desirwl information is being prepared by practical beekeenerß in this city. . . .