96 A Modem Bee Farm 



100 Breeding Hens, 



besides the thousand or two chickens reared therefrom 

 during the season, and the profit from each hen is usually 

 found to be ;^i for the year, in eggs and chickens pro- 

 duced. Here we have another ;£'ioo after paying all 

 expenses. Consequently we are still left with the most 

 important and the most profitable department of culture 

 upon the farm, that of the bees ; and yet these require 

 less labour and attention, and far less feeding than any 

 other stock upon the place, when once the hives are 

 well established. 



They will show larger and more valuable returns than 

 the cows, or the hay, and yet I will place the profits 

 so low that the greatest grumbler will not be able to find 

 fault with this, the modest sum of £i per hive for 50 

 colonies of bees, standing upon less than one-fourth of an 

 acre. But then you see they take toll from your 

 neighbours' acres, from woodland and forest, his open 

 pastures, gardens and orchards, and his waving fields of 

 clover, with dancing heads bright with many attractive 

 colours. And above all no rent is paid for this innocent 

 trespass, and no harm is done to the owner, for the busy 

 bees take what he can never harvest, and that which he 

 hath not cannot from him be robbed; 



The Total. 



Now what do our figures show : — 



30 tons of hay at £^ — £^S° O^ss all expenses), say 

 8 acres pasture at £10, as profit from dairy say — 



100 hens (eggs and chickens from), say — 



50 stocks of bees, yielding ;^i each... 



Profit on horned stock sold annually 



