70 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



bee does not put the cap directly on top of the honey, while 

 the Italians will fill the cell as full as they can get it. 



Question. Is there any covering put on that honey as the 

 bee passes along ? 



Mr. Jeffries. Nothing but wax as it falls from the bee as 

 it comes from the mouth of the cell. We cannot find any 

 other covering by looking at it closely with a strong magnify- 

 ing glass. 



Mr. Crofput. Do you think if bees are well cared for 

 there is food enough in Connecticut to support any number of 

 them ? 



Mr. Jeffries. As near as I can find out, there are between 

 fifty and seventy-five thousand stocks in the State of Con- 

 necticut to-day. In places where we have been showing people 

 how to change from the old-fashioned box hive to the movable 

 hive plan, I find that they are just about trebling, and in some 

 cases increasing four times, the number of stocks that were 

 originally in the locality. Those stocks, under the improved 

 care, and by saving the best, seem to give four times the 

 amount of honey that they did before in the box hives. I 

 think that the number of stocks that there are in the State 

 can be increased six or eight times, and, with proper care, 

 make a very good paying investment. Where they are prop- 

 ly taken care of, T believe that the people are satisfied that 

 they pay as well as anything else they can do. I know two 

 or three men, within a few miles of where we now are, who 

 have obtained from four to six hundred dollars this year as 

 the result of taking care of twenty or thirty stocks in movable 

 comb hives. You may think that everybody can do that. I 

 do not think so, because you have got to understand bees in 

 order to take advantage of them, and if you don't take ad- 

 vantage of them, you will not get the benefit. It is a math- 

 ematical problem in regard to handling them clear through, 

 because you have got to increase your stocks in the spring 

 at such time as to have the strongest of your working force 

 in the harvest, or as one of our best bee keepers says : " You 

 must manage to have your bowl right side up when it rains 



