196 EEV. n. K. PEEL BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



young bees in the spring. Thousands of colonies, Mr. Abbott says, 

 perished from this cause, and in some parts whole districts were 

 depopulated. 



The spring of 1879 seems to be as unpropitious for bees and bee- 

 keepers, as far as weather is concerned, as that of 1875. But as far 

 as my own experience goes, bees, where they have been properly 

 attended to, have survived the winter well. Many stocks have, to 

 my knowledge, perished, but their fate is (in nearly every case) 

 attributable to the incompetency or inattention of their owners. 

 To go back to the starting point of my lecture and the dictum of 

 the judge in the Metropolitan County Court, these people ought 

 not to have attempted to keep bees until they had learnt their 

 needs and requirements. 



A great advance has been made in bee-keeping through the 

 exertions of the British Bee-keepers' Association, and the county 

 and local societies which have emanated from it. Bees have been 

 treated much more humanely and much more intelligently and 

 carefully than before. I have not time to-night to speak to you of 

 the objects or mode of working of these associations. I have not 

 ventured to touch upon to-night, "The Principles Involved in 

 Profitable Bee-Culture," but 1 hope that all those members of 

 the Society who keep bees will learn in course of time how to 

 make their £3 per hive, which Mr. Cheshire has mentioned as 

 being the average rate of profit which every intelligent bee-keeper 

 may expect to reap from the labour of his bees. 



