6 ITALIAN BEE KEEPING. 



This Italian system can be introdnced at a very trifling expendi- 

 ture in cstablisldng an apiary, and without entailing any after 

 expense in maintenance beyond that of new hives for new swarms. 



Anyone possessing even a small garden can commence bee- 

 keeping on this system at a very small ontlay. A swarm of bees, 

 if bought in England, costs from 10s. to 20s., and if this swarm 

 be carefully kept, from it alone an entire apiary can be populated. 



A new Italian hive of eight frames to begin with, as any number 

 can afterwards be added when wanted, will cost in Italy about 8d. 

 To this must be added the cost of newly-invented machine for 

 taking honey, about 5s. 



After the first year, if the season be favourable, the beekeeper 

 may take about 301b. of honey a year, which, if sold at 8d. a pound, 

 makes d£l ; while the next year, for a further outlay of only 23. 6d. 

 for thirty more frames to complete two hives, 601b. of honey may be 

 taken, worth £2. As average example, (,in one season from one 

 hive with frames I took 301b. of honey, and at the end of the season 

 I left the hive fully stocked with about 281b. of honey, not calculating 

 the weight of frames, wax, or bees. In Florence the Marquis 

 Eidolfi's honey (taken by these centrifugal machines) is sold for 

 Ifr., or lOd., per lb. — a price readily paid even by frugal Italians, 

 as the honey is the purest possible, being entirely free from pollen 

 or wax. Let us consider this honey, or money, as the interest only 

 of the money invested in bees, and remember each hive will yield 

 one artificial swarm a year by the system here advocated. I think 

 these considerations may induce many people to give Don Giotto's 

 system of bee-keeping a trial.* 



Some of the previous remarks on the advantages of bee-keeping 

 would apply to that pursuit in general, but I now wish par- 

 ticularly to bring to the notice of English people the new Italian 

 system of managing bees, which has many improvements, some, 

 I think, quite new, which might be introdnced into England with 

 the greatest advantage. Amongst many of the advantages of the 

 new system I wish particularly to draw attention to the smielatore, 

 which is a very simple and cheap machine, by which in a few 

 seconds the honey is extracted from the comb in any of the frames 

 of which a Giotto hive is composed, and afterwards the frame with 

 comb is replaced in the hive, and in a few days the bees re-fill it 

 with honey, and then again the honey may be taken. This system 

 may be applied to every Giotto hive in an apiary. Also I wish to 



• These calculations must be regarded as rather too favourable for 

 England, where, taking an average of the seasons, one good, one mode- 

 i-ate, and one bad occur every three years ; again, many districts are very 

 barren of honey yielding flowers.— W. B. T. 



