1G2 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



hive, the bees are induced to leave the old hive and fill the surplus boxes, and 

 make a strong colony, while the old hive, vrhich has few bees and plenty of 

 brood, will not swarm." 



Mr. Hildretli stated that he used larger hives and frames to avoid the work 

 of taking out honey very often. A largo hive is well adapted to the use of 

 farmers who cannot spare much time for the care of bees during the honey 

 season. 



*'I consider the chaff hive preferable to any other, and have never lost any 

 bees from using it." 



To increase stock rapidly, Mr. Cheney said : ""I start nuclei with one or 

 two queen cells, and a few bees. I keep adding from strong hives brood that 

 is nearly ready to hatch." 



To the question "How much territory do you allow bees?" he replied: 

 "One hundred stock of bees will generally take all the honey in the surround- 

 ing country, for a distance of two miles." 



BEE KEEPING IN CONNECTION WITH FARMING. 



BY T. F. BINGHAM. 

 [Read at Otsego Institute.] 



In response to a request from your honorable committee that I should fur- 

 nish a paper on the above subject, and that it should be instructive, I have 

 decided to give a brief outline of my own experience in keeping bees, which, 

 while it may not be very interesting may be instructive. 



I will begin by saying that bees have been kept in our family continuously 

 more than one hundred years. My grandfather on my mother's side was a 

 farmer, and kept bees very extensively. The fact that he gave my father, 

 who was also a farmer, his first stock of bees, is evidence thac he regarded 

 bees as a valuable aid to agriculture. As my father kept the same race of 

 bees a period of fifty years, it may be reasonably inferred that they were not 

 only pretty well kept, but regarded as valuable property. 



I have kept bees all the time since 1862. I began with twenty colonies, 

 bought and increased to 200 in two years, in Western New York. When I 

 began, honey was plenty and cheap, but during the war, honey in fine shape 

 and of fine quality, sold promptly at from 30 to 45 cents per pound, while 

 beeswax was quick sale at from 85 cents to $1 per pound. Since that time 

 both honey and wax have declined in price, till from 6 to 25 cents per pound 

 is the usual rate. Honey, when iu fancy shape, is strictly a fancy article and 

 does not depend upon the price of other sweets for ils market value. Fancy 

 honey is its only competitor. 



Fourteen years ago, when I came to Allegan, I found bees plenty all 

 through the county, among the farmers, and they all said that bees did 

 well with them. There were no exclusive beekeepers then in the county, 

 but there were a great many bees. Alanson Weeks, of Allegan, probably, 

 was the nearest to a special beekeeper, of any man in the county, having 

 fifty or more colonies, and giving them special attention and skillful care. 



