VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 97 



surplus boxes should be put on the hives, giving- the bees an 

 opportunity to store honey where we may get some returns 

 tor our labor and expense. The boxes should be taken from 

 the hive as soon as completed, or as soon as the honey flow 

 stops, and put in a warm, dry and well ventilated room, and 

 kept under those conditions till the honey is ripened suffi- 

 ciently to be in the right condition for market. When the 

 honey increases beyond the demands of the family, study to 

 dispose of the surplus to the best advantage. Do not go to 

 your nearest grocer and sell the honey for less than the 

 wholesale price, as is often done. You do not take your but- 

 ter in a wash tub or dry goods box to the store and offer it for 

 12 cents, when you can put it into a neat package, made ex- 

 pressly for the purpose, and send it to market and get 18 

 cents. Honey should be handled with the same painstaking 

 care. The boxes should be cleaned and kept from dust and 

 insects. Neat crates should be provided, holding about twen- 

 ty boxes each, and the honey carefully graded and packed, 

 either with glass fronts or cartons neatlv printed. 



At the close of the honey season, there should be an am- 

 ple supply of honey in the hives for the winter stores needed 

 by the bees. If honey is lacking, sugar syrup should be fed as 

 in the spring. The difference being that in the spring we 

 feed to encourage brooding and in the fall we feed to keep the 

 bees from starving during the winter. Before cold weather 

 sets in the bees should be packed in double walled hives, or 

 put into a dry, frost proof cellar, to protect them from the 

 severity of our Vermont winters. 



I have already said enough to convince you that bee keep- 

 ing is no child's play; that it requires skillful labor and good 

 judgment. I have said very little of the profits of the busi- 

 ness, as that has often been overdone, inducing many to take 

 up the occupation, only to meet with failure. 



But many farmers have added this branch to their other 

 interests and found it most profitable of any for the amount 

 of labor and expense involved. Many who have not strength 

 to grapple with the heavier farm labor have taken uo this 

 work and found a healthful and pleasurable occupation with 

 remuneration sufficient to induce them to continue the business 

 for the profits alone. 



The old saying holds true "that any business is good 

 business, provided it is well followed." 



