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Village Squire, 1978-10, Page 13The extractor makes use of centrifugal force to spin the honey out of the combs. visited regularly by Women's Institutes and by school children who come to learn more about bees. Mrs. Fear sometimes speaks to groups at meetings. although she doesn't enjoy public speaking. They sometimes have displays at craft shows and fairs but these usually come dyring the busy season for beekeepers. They also had a display at the International Plowing Match near Wingham because they felt that Huron county beekeepers should be represented. A trip to the Fear's honey house is an experience for all the senses. The smell of the honey is thick enough in the air that it can almost be tasted. The drone of a few bees that have escaped into the building is there. Keeping the building clean from this sticky sweet mess is a constant battle. Mrs. Fear says she scrubs and cleans the honey house every day. Foul weather days are spent in the honey house extracting the honey. The good weather is taken advantage of for visits to the scattered bee yards looking after the bees and gathering full supers for later extraction. Beekeeping takes advantage of the fact that bees are endless v, orkers. Their aim of course is to produce enough honey to keep them going during the winter months. But bees are such work fiends that they go on producing honey long after they, have enough for their own needs and will keep going as long as there is a place to store the honey and as long as there are enough flowers for them to harvest. There v.ere days in the past when a single hive would yield 300 pounds of honey. Supers could be piled six or seven high over the foundation of the hive whictfholds the queen and brood. Today. however. Mrs. Fear says. beekeepers think they have a good average if they get 75 pounds from each hive. It isn't that like the rest of us the bees are doing less and v. tinting more, it's that the agricultural practices have changed in the countryside. In years gone by flowering crops such as clover or buckwheat covered a Targe part of the landscape. That was betore cash cropping became so popular. The growing of corn and white beans became the major preoccupation of many farmers and for several years there was little left for the bees to gather nectar from. A change back at least a little may be on the way with the realization by farmers that crop rotation is necessary to get good yields. Even though corn may remain popular and more profitable than clover farmers have come to realize that planting corn year after year on the same land will see diminishing yields and deterioration of the quality of the soil. The answer is to rotate the crops and crops such as alfalfa have become important as a v.ay of giving the land a rest and rebuilding the nutrients in the soil because of its ability to manufacture nitrogen in nodules FINE FURNITURE • PAINTS CARPETS • WALLCOVERINGS Robert L. Plumsteel Interiors DECORATING PHONE 527-0902 SEAFORTH Iiie have over 10 gears in inferior design experience We will decorate your room or home to suit your personality. Give us a call and,we will come to your home with our free decorating service. We can co-ordinate to your Special Needs. ;IP We have a large selection of furniture, floor covering, wall covering and paints. VILLAGE SQUIRE/OCTOBER 1978. P6.11.