Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

199 BEE FARMING. AN INTERESTING COTTAGE INDUSTRY. OF all Britons at work there are few whose occupations are more interesting than that of a devoted and competent bee- keeper. Perhaps it would be better to call it a. hobby rather than an occupation, though there are many who manage to make it not only a matter of amusement and interest, but of profit too. It is, however, hardly an •occupation in the sense of being a business to which a person may devote his whole time and attention with a view to making a full income. There are in this king- dom no such “ bee-farms ” as there are in America. The vast expanses of flowering crops and die more equable climate of some regions of the Western world are more favourable to bee culture than the conditions prevailing in this country. There are Ameri- can apiaries with their thousand, fifteen hun- dred, and two thousand hives, and honey producing is a considerable and very profit- able business. With us it is more of a cottage industry, carried on by those who have other occupa- tions to rely upon, and who keep bees only as a subsidiary business at once interesting and profitable. In this fickle and uncertain climate of ours bee-keeping can hardly be DIPPING BOARDS INTO MOLTEN WAX.