2 



BEE-KEEPING IN RUSSIA. 



[June 1895. 



governments of Kazan, Viatka, Perm, Ufa, and on the lower 

 slopes of the Ural mountains, where extensive forests still 

 exist. In these localities, bees are bred by the Slavonic and 

 other Russian people. The culture of bees in modern hives 

 is developed in the central non-Chernoziom, Beloroussk, and 

 Litovsk governments. In the two latter regions, owing to the 

 presence of a great number of lime trees, the best honey called 

 liioovits (lime-tree honey) is produced. In the Chernoziom 

 region, apiculture is principally developed in Little Russia and 

 in the south-western governments, es]">ecially in Tchernigov, 

 Poltava, and Ekaterinoslav. The industry has attained its 

 greatest development in the southern part of the government 

 of Tchernigov, near Batourin and Konotop. 



The peasant bee keepers usually employ hives made of 

 well-hollowed trunks. At the lower end, the hive is open and 

 fixed to a piece of board. The upper end is sometimes the 

 continuation of the trunk, and sometimes a separate attach- 

 ment, made of wood or of clay, which can be taken off when 

 desirable. In the interior of these rude hives small crossbars 

 are fixed to sustain the comb. 



Section hives are principally used by estate owners and 

 amateurs. Improved beehives are, however, being intro- 

 duced even among peasants, especially in the west and south- 

 west of Russia, in the governments of Podolsk, Volynsk, and 

 Yistula. Of the improved hives, the most popular are those 

 made on the English and American systems, but others of 

 Russian manufacture are also used. 



Artificial wax is comparatively a novelty in Russia, and is 

 made in very small quantities. Very few persons manufacture 

 it for sale. 



The sowing of melliferous flowers for bees is very little 

 practised by Russian bee-keepers. The bees generally gather 

 honey from the flowers in the surrounding fields and, in the 

 neighbourhood of forests, from various trees, especially the lime. 

 Buckwheat, which is cultivated all over Russia, especially 

 on peasants' farms, gives abundant and excellent material 

 for honey. In the government of Tchernigov, for example, 

 buckwheat is the principal food for bees, and if that cereal 

 fails the bees do not thrive. Generally the abundance or 

 scarcity of honey depends upon the condition of field crops, 

 and upon the length of time the crops are in blossom. In seasons 

 of drought, as in the years 1890 and 1891, the bees are 

 artificially fed from the beginning of summer, and the yields of 

 honey and wax are then very small. 



Honey and wax are gathered in different ways. From the 

 connnon hives they are taken out by killing the bees, or by a 

 method called j^or^re^^ioi. By the first method all the bees in 

 the hive are suflbcated by smoke, and then the honey, the 

 wax, and the bees are raked out with a hook en masse into 

 receptacles. Honey extracted in this way, called sirtsevoi or 



