6 
occupiers, who are not likely to be absent from their homes for 
several days at a time: it is also an industry for which women 
are well adapted; many of the most successful and capable 
bee-keepers being women. 
The profits from bee-keeping are large compared with the neces- 
sary cash outlay. Asa rule, one bar-frame 
3. Profits. hive of bees properly looked after in a good 
honey district, will, after providing for 
its own wants, produce on an average about 60 lbs. weight of 
section honey in a season, worth, at 5d. per lb., £1 5s., so that, 
allowing 10s. for necessary expenses, the actual profit may be 
put at 15s., while the first cost of the hive, outfit, and stock of 
bees is about £2. 
II. THE HONEY BEE AND ITS METHODS OF 
WORKING. 
In most localities the principal flower supply of honey prevails 
during the months of June, July and 
4. Honey Supply. August, as also in May in early districts, 
and September in late districts ; and gene- 
rally a strong stock in a bar-frame hive will not only support 
itself throughout most of this period, and provide a surplus for 
removal as above estimated, but will also lay by a sufficient 
store of honey to support it through the winter (125). The 
principal sources of honey supply in Ireland are—in the spring, 
the blossoms of fruit trees and of some forest trees and shrubs, 
those of willow, gorse or whin, blackthorn, gooseberry, and plum 
being amongst the earliest ; in summer, white clover and lime, 
and in autumn, blackberry, ling heather, wild scabious or 
devil’s bit, ivy, &c. Districts in which white clover flourishes 
are particularly well adapted for bee-keeping. 
Misconceptions often occur amongst beginners, owing to the 
misuse of terms: the following definitions 
5. Definitions. apply to terms which frequently occur in 
the instructions which follow: bee-keepers 
should accustom themselves to apply these terms correctly. 
A “‘swarm ”’ signifies the bees which migrate in a body from 
an existing stock. 
A “cast” is a term by which the second or any subsequent 
swarm which leaves a stock in one season is designated. 
A “hive ” signifies the artificial structure in which a stock is. 
maintained. 
A “ stock ” of bees signifies the living bee population of a hive, 
with its brood. 
The Black or native bees are on the whole the best comb honey 
producers: beginners are recommended to. 
select this variety. The Italian or Ligurian 
bees are the best gatherers of honey, but 
their capping of cells is defective, and con- 
sequently reduces the market value of section honey produced. 
5a. Races of Bees. 
