The American Apiculturist 



A JOUIJXAL FOR THK XOVICK AND KXTKliT. 



Devoted to Best Races of Bees, Best Hives, Best Implements and Best 



Methods of Management to make Beekeeping a Success. 

 PUBLISHED MONTHLY. HENRY ALLEY, Mandger.. 



VOL. VI. WENHAM, MASS., SEPTEMBER, 1888. No. 9. 



Surplus Honey Production in Great 

 Britain. 



W. B. Webster. 



It is interestiii": to note the various 

 methods of bee cultivatioiiin vogue iu the 

 numberless countries of the habitable 

 globe, from the peculiar S3'stein adopted 

 by the uncivilized trii)es iuiuibitiug the 

 banks of the Con_y;o where, in rush bas- 

 kets suspended on tlie branches of the 

 trees, tliese suviiiics locate their stocks 

 and swarms, to the l)ar-frauie hive of Am- 

 erica or Britain and their extensive — iu 

 America — massing together of almost un- 

 limited numbers of colonies aud wiiere 

 beekeeping lias now become a science, 

 studied and examined by its devotees iu 

 all its mullifold phases; but it is only to a 

 portion of this science that I am now 

 going to call attention and draw compar- 

 isons, nof.villistanding the English prov- 

 erb, '-Comparisons are odious," oftlimes 

 vvritteu by me m my copy book years ago 

 when at school. Vet I would fain cease 

 writing if I thought that any of my Amer- 

 ican brothers in the bee craft would for 

 one moment suppose that I meant any of 

 my comparisons to reflect to their detri- 

 ment, or hurt their naiional sensibilities. 



"Supering" as practised in Britain is in 

 many cases so d i tie re ntly executed from the 

 same in America that the divergent cliar- 

 acters of the two people are exemplified 

 even in this minor industry. Iu America 

 the question is invariably asked, by any- 

 one about to make a venture in any pro- 

 ductive enterprise, Will it pay? Will the 

 dollars that I am about to invest bring- 

 back llieir equivalent and something ex- 

 tra? Such will always be the question 

 asked wiiere the ruling passion of any 

 community is trade. Here iu England we 

 have many, in fact by far the greater num- 

 ber of beekeepers who keep a few stocks 

 of bees simply as a pastime and not as an 

 addition to their incomes; these people 

 make the question of profit quite a sec- 

 ondary consideration, although . this de- 

 scription of beekeeper is gradually falling 



14 



out of the ranks and the far-seeing trader 

 stepping in to till up the gaps left by his 

 easy-going conpatriot. 



It was not ufllil the advent of the bar- 

 frame hive that the production of honey, 

 as a business, at all attracted the attention 

 of the Americans. They could get what 

 little honey they at that time wanted, 

 from the bee hunters or tlu-ir agents. A 

 few bee gums were kept by farmer.s and 

 others, I suppose a sort of reverting back 

 to their ancestors who, in the old farm in 

 England, had had their two or three straw 

 skeps ornamenting the lower portion of 

 the garden wall. Honey then was not ob- 

 tainable in a salable form. It was unat- 

 tractive and not produced in diflering 

 quantities to make it a trading commoility. 

 of any magnitude ; but as soon as the frame 

 hive entered the arena the Americaui 

 seized on the idea at once and went in. 

 "big" for it, making a business at once 

 and counting the dollars as they flowed 

 into his ever ready hand. Not so the 

 phlegmatic Britisher — he wanted to see 

 whether it would answer and even when 

 it was showu by the pioneers (not trad- 

 ers) of British beekeeping that it was an 

 industry that would pay, he was slow to 

 avail himself of the opportunity oflcred to 

 him ; in fact, after all these years, there is 

 not at the present time a single beekeeper 

 in Eiiglanil who entirely relies on his 

 honey production alone for a living and 

 the number of beekeepers owning over 

 eighty stocks couUl be counted upon the 

 tiiigers. When the production of comb 

 honey i sectional) had assumed, in Amer- 

 ica, gigantic proportions in proponiou to 

 the time elapsed since the introduction of 

 the same, the ordinary British beekeepers 

 were only just conuneucing to be alive to 

 the fact that honey could be packeil by the 

 b'.'cs in salable and attractive parcels. 

 Not that they were quite unaware of this, 

 as many of the pioneers had, even before 

 the Americans, provided their bees with 

 separate removable receptacles similar to 

 sections aud had conclusively shown that 

 such articles of commerce could be pro- 

 duced at a fair profit to the producer; but 

 John Bull was, as usual, obliged to feel 



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