12 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



One Van Deusen wax-tube fastener. 

 One J-pound spool No. 30, tinned wire. 

 One Porter bee-escape, with board. 

 One Manum's swarm-catcher. 

 One Dixie bee-brush. 

 One DooHttle division-board feeder. 

 One Alley's queen and drone trap. 



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NOTES ON A BEGINNER'S ORDER 



THE BEES 



The selection of the bees is the first and most im- 

 portant consideration, since race and heredity 

 determine to so great an extent the bee's efficiency 

 and disposition. 



The consensus of opinion to-day is in favour of the 

 Italian bees; this is so much so that the other races, 

 except the German, are hardly on the general 

 market in America. Taking all points into con- 

 sideration, the Italian has a higher average of sat- 

 isfactory qualities than has any of the other races. 



Our earliest experiences were with the ordinary 

 black German bees, and it was through them that 

 we first learned to love bees, although their nervous- 

 ness and their unhappy habit of considering us in- 

 truders when we neared their domain were always 

 somewhat embarrassing, and made us feel like 

 James Whitcomb Riley's visiting base-ball team, 

 that "we weren't so welcome as we aimed to be." 

 Therefore, when we decided to buy bees, we un- 



