Beekeeping in Great Britain.

Manawatu Herald, 19 July 1898, Page 2

Beekeeping in Great Britain.

Mr Cowan, editor of the British Bee Jcurrjtlt gave the following address at a recent Californian Siafc - Convention. We copy from the American Bee Journal. While in California large apiaries are common and encouraged, io England (here

are bat few large apiaries, and large apiaries are not encouraged ; the small apiary is the rule in England, and many of the apiaries are kept in fruit-growing districts for the parpose of fertilizing the fruit-blossoms. Beekeeping, according to improved methods^began about 1860. The ciaßjgMiftifff'uiTiB ?l watt^iiffroiSllSifl at that time, and was used by the most progressive beekeepers* but thai real advance did not become general with time many straw and other rode hives were nsed, but now the Langstroth hive is gradually superseding all other?. In 1874 the Bbitisb Bee Journal was started and an association organized; something of an impetus was also given to the industry tbro^gh the «xhfriftf of honey in the Crystal Patece in Bondon. In organizing the British Bee* keep^ri' Asjpoiatipn it • wlMififcult toge* : heekeeper/to -aitend. The Association is now made up from nifiliakd societies. The various %c** IfeiV^wKfcr meW^lry month. Often the delegation from a county society will number eight or ten, an 4 •jlajfce-attendance at the council faMhe reran. Refreshments are served, and then follows papers xhrougli US HOrougnorganizaiiton the British Beekeepers' Association is ..doing except educational work, several books upon the different .branches of apiculture having been SVflrftf^^^^ttfi ££^tfflflKtffeatA OMMflAfiftK^M f»nm. I a hives, but straw hives as well, and in the management of foal brood and other diseases. When an examination of candidates for certificates is to be held, several coonties unite and select a placet bfes e*n be manipulated. After the candidate is examined, the examination papers are sent to London and past upon by the council. In order to secure a certificate the candidate must be able to^e a lecture upon attV*u|Jecfc in Experts for €he Bandung "of fonl brood are appointed and compensated according to the work done. The expert does not visit keepers who are well up in their business, but it is the careless or ignorant beekeeper whose bees are found diseased. In many districts in England the bees have all died from this disease. It was virulent because many bee* keepers had no knowledge of the interior of a b^-ts hi ve : straw hives, or something tq-ially inaccessible, were in u?e ; puoh beekeepers would defy the expert, for there wis no law to compel tbe destruction diseased bees. The Association has adopted a system of payments where foul brood colonies were to be destroyed, and th'nngh-.tbaipayjneniff ware small it sati fiad the owner of the beep, and en bled him to puechiife healthy «--»lonJua if= Alia; -own were all de»iroyrt3.' ..?