CHAPTER IV 



Making a Start. 



IT IS necessary before beginning to keep bees to become 

 as familiar with the care and habits of the honey bee as is 

 possible. The more one knows about bees, the more cer- 

 tain one is to succeed. In every Hne of work, it is the specialist, 

 who is best acquainted with his business, who reaps a harvest 

 where others may fail. This is particularly true of bee culture. 



One may learn the essentials of bee culture from a study of 

 bee books. One must grasp the theory before beginning to keep 

 bees, since it is necessary to know why certain methods are used 

 in the production of honey, if their application is to be success- 

 ful. An excellent way to gain much first hand knowledge, is to 

 visit the yard of a neighbor beekeeper, and put on a bee veil, 

 and go with him through a day's work in the apiary. It is well, 

 however, since not all beekeepers are good beekeepers, to make a 

 study of the work by studying bee culture before undertaking 

 such an expedition. If you know when the beekeeper is right 

 and WTong in his speculations regarding what happens in the 

 hive, in case he doesn't really know, you will be able to avoid 

 absorbing a lot of bee lore which you may have to unlearn. 



The beginner will learn much more from handling bees than 

 any other way, and first hand information is easiest learned. It 

 is not necessary to learn a great mass of statistical and rule of 

 thumb plans, to be a successful beekeeper. Practical beekeeping 

 requires a simple knowledge of a few fundamental reasons as to 

 why bees increase and protect themselves against their natural 

 situations. When this is known, practical beekeeping becomes 

 applied bee behavior, or learning how to shape the work of the 

 bees naturally toward your own ends. When you have fully 

 grasped these fundamentals, you will know more real beekeeping 

 than many beekeepers. 



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