184 A Modern Bee-Farm 



Small packages for honey are not wanted either by the retailer 

 or his customer. In these days of lower prices the tendency is 

 towards using larger rather than smaller weights. Good jam is 

 sold in 2 lb. jars at from lod. to is. each at retail. We have to, 

 and shall compete with that at no distant date. A few years since 

 jams were about double the present value, but at the reduced rate, 

 half-a-dozen pounds are consumed where only one was used when 

 costing much more. The same will be found true of extracted 

 honey, and the sooner bee-keepers are brought to accept this 

 fact, the sooner will the production of honey be acknowledged as 

 a national industry. 



Bees winter best with plenty of room below the frames. Many 

 of my own stocks have been wintered with the lower body under 

 the stock chamber, as used for prevention of swarming, with very 

 satisfactory results. 



Chickens will be found very serviceable in the apiary, as they 

 destroy a large number of insects. Earwigs especially, and some- 

 times ants swarm about the hives, but though they do no harm 

 they are a great nuisance. Chickens turned down as soon as they 

 can take care of themselves, can soon be taught to look in the 

 right place for the pests, and will be on hand when the hives are 

 opened. 



With a quarter of an acre of borage, the seed from a number 

 of sunflowers, and a good grass run, in all rather more than an 

 acre, I have had about a dozen fowls come along fit for the table, 

 with no other feeding, except a little corn for a week or ten days 

 before killing. 



None of the birds have been actually stung, though sometimes 

 attacked. At iirst they simply pick off the bee ; but finding their 



