96 WESTERN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



bees feeding- on sixty varieties of plants last summer, many 

 of them wild prairie flowers very general all over the Prov- 

 ince. It requires : 1st. A fondness for the pursuit. Any 

 person who thinks bees require too much attention and are 

 not worth the time expended, should not invest in them. 



2nd. A suitable location. In this country, where our winds 

 are often very persistent, shelter, either artificial or natural, 

 should be provided ; a tight board fence will do, but a clump 

 of timber or a ravine is better, because honey flowers are 

 more plentiful in such locations. 



3rd. A knowledge of the business can only be gained by 

 experience, assisted by one of the many good bee books, such 

 as Cook's Manual, The A.B.C. of Bee Culture, etc. 



4th. A certain amount of patience and perseverance and 

 a willingness to use care in small matters. 



HOW TO START. 



Purchase only a few colonies at first, two or three is 

 sufficient, a Clarke smoker, 5 Ibs. comb foundation, four or 

 five spare hives, besides a few minor articles, such as founda- 

 tion wire, a good bee book ; study up the details of each 

 operation before undertaking it and the work will become 

 easier and more interesting each week. 



The yield per colony will vary much, all the way from 

 nil to 150 pounds, but perhaps 40 to 50 Ibs., spring count, is 

 about the average, although many report larger returns ; we 

 extracted 45 Ibs. per colony on the experimental farm last 

 season. 



Comb honey is of course the most valuable, pound for 

 pound, but I find it less labor to work for extracted honey, 

 and with us the increased returns more than made up for the 

 lower price per pound, and besides, when working for ex- 

 tracted honey, more room can be given and excessive swarm- 

 ing prevented. 



Do not remove bees from the cellar until the willows 

 bloom, generally the end of April ; place the hives facing the 



