■8 BEE-FARMING. 



pure limpid honey comes out of the extractor clean and free 

 from comb, &c. This is worth nine shillings, if sold 

 privately. The honey being so pure, clean, and fresh, 

 sells easily all the season round, which is not the case with 

 the honey pressed out of the dirty comb, filled with decay- 

 ing larvs of the bees, &c. In fact, the black-looking 

 autumn honey is of this description, and tainted as it is 

 with sulphur it is a wonder that any one can think of 

 eating it. 



Our system, if followed honestly, should bring an 

 annual income of ten pounds per hive. This perhaps is 

 rather a high estimate, but in good honey seasons it will 

 do more than this. In poor seasons it should clear six 

 pounds. Taking swarms into consideration, as part of the 

 profits of the bee-farm, we know of no trade so lucrative as 

 that of a bee-farmer. 



BEE-FARMER'S HIVE. 



These being the general principles of our system, we 

 proceed to treat them more fully in detail. And first of the 

 character of the hive. We strongly urge this point to 

 all who wish to become bee-masters, and not only bee- 

 keepgrs ; any one, even the most unskilled, can keep bees, 

 but very few, alas! as our experience teaches us, are bee- 

 farmers. 



We should like to make all our readers first-class 

 British bee-farmers, keeping, if circumstances would allow 

 it, fifty hives in their apiary. 



First, then, see to the hives ; discard every hive over 

 which you have not complete control. For instance, 

 drones may increase to an alarming extent, so as to destroy 

 the productiveness of the colony ; you must be able at 

 once to change the bars, and to place those bars containing 



