lb 



BEE-FJRMING. 



hive in which the combs are not frequently renewed, " I 

 can assure the reader there is no profit in the frequent 

 renewal of the combs : all experienced and disinterested 

 bee-keepers will bear testimony to this. I find it estimated 

 by writers that twenty-five pounds of honey are consumed 

 in elaborating about one pound of wax. This may be an 

 over-estimate, but no one will deny that some is used. 1 

 am satisfied from actual experience that every time the 

 bees are required to renew their brood-combs they would 

 make from ten to twenty-five pounds of honey, hence I 

 infer that their time may be much more profitably em- 

 ployed than in constructing brood-combs every year." 



It is, we are glad to say, generally acknowledged by 

 our best bee authorities that bees will store more in the 

 stock-hive, /. e. in the hive in which the queen lives, and 

 which is full of life and activity from being the dwelling- 

 place of the working community, than in any other re- 

 ceptacle. In an excellent little catalogue of bee furniture 

 just published by Mr. Yates, of Manchester, he makes the 

 following admission : " It may be observed that bees 



BRITISH bee-farmer's HIVE. 



storing the stock-hive increase in weight faster than when 

 filling supers ; the honey thus collected, however, is not so- 

 accessible." Mr. Yates is here speaking about the common 

 straw skep, where it is quite true the honey is never 

 accessible, but he admits a truth, which the sooner it is- 



