THE HONEYBEE

Abstract

FROM the beekeeper's point of view, honey production is the main object of beekeeping ; but from the national point of view it is only a by-product. Both in peace and war, the chief contribution of beekeeping to the national economy is the provision of pollinators for crops such as fruit, clover and mustard. Except for this fact it is doubtful whether the allocation of 15-20 Ib. of sugar per annum to each colony could be justified, even though in an average season an average surplus of 30-35 Ib. of sugar (as 'honey-sugar') should be obtained over and above the 20-25 Ib. of honey which should be left in the hive in the autumn for the use of the bees during the non-productive months of the year. Recent estimates show there to be nearly 56,000 beekeepers, owning a total of about 430,000 colonies of bees, in England and Wales alone, but the allocation of some three or four thousand tons of sugar to them annually is a small price to pay for successful fruit and seed crops.