Proceedings of tee Farmers' Club. 299 



couducted. He stated that he now has about seventy skips of 

 honey bees, and the numerous boxes of superior honey which were 

 sent to New York from his apiary (which the Club were invited to 

 see), convinced every member that making honey, when bees are 

 properly managed, is a paying business, requiring very little cap- 

 ital. The hive, full of bees and honey, which Mr. Bingham exhib- 

 ited to the committee of the Club, embraces the principle of the 

 old straw beehive. Any farmer who can saw off a board to a line, 

 and drive a nail true, can make one of his style of hives, of rough 

 boards, m a short time. The outer covering of the hive consists 

 of a box made of rough boards, which is open at the bottom, and 

 is placed over that portion of the hive which contains the bees and 

 the honey. Every comb is held in a separate, triangular frame, so 

 that every cell in the interior of the hive can be readily examined, 

 and the comb returned to its place. And if it is desirable to take 

 a few pounds of honey from the hive, one of the triangular frames 

 can be removed, the honey taken out, and the frame returned. This 

 hive has been constructed with reference, also, to convenience and 

 efficiency in affording protection to bees during cold weather. A 

 spacious chamber is provided on every side of the bees, except the 

 bottom, to be filled with cut straw, hay, shavings, or some non- 

 conductor of heat. Apiarians have always experienced serious 

 difficulty in keeping their bees alive during cold weather. Undue 

 exposure in our cold climate operates as unfavorably on bees as on 

 domestic fowls. Those birds that are poorly fed and not protected 

 by comfortable apartments, will never be prolific. The same is 

 true of bees. Mr. Bingham's remarks were as follows: 



"While bees in almost any place will gather honey for their own 

 use they will not store sufficient to afford their keeper any real 

 remuneration unless there is a good supply of early foliage within 

 the radius of two miles. If this early supply is not at hand there 

 is no alternative except the daily feeding of every stock from the 

 beginning of May till the clover or other supply comes forward. 

 In the older portion of the country, the greater part of the clover 

 season is lost for want of laborers to gather the honey it contains. 

 When the country was new, early and constant forage was the rule; 

 but as grass and grain took the place of early plants and trees, the 

 early bee pasture failed and with it bee-keeping with its former 

 care. Experience has shown a virgin soil to be the only one on 

 which slothful husbandry will pay. The same is true of bee-keep- 

 ing. In most of the States, particularly in grazing portions of the 



