XI 



BEES AND BEE- 

 KEEPING. 



"HERE is in our village 

 one bond of good feel- 

 ing and amity which was 

 so unexpected to me that 

 I cannot but make special record of it. The same thing 

 may exist in other parochial communities, but it did 

 not come before me in any other place I visited in the 

 same definite and effective way as it has in our parish. 

 This is bee-keeping. The country round, owing to the 

 gradual enclosure of heaths and commons, is certainly 

 not so good for this purpose as it once was; but 

 gardens abound, and so conservative are the people in 

 following the habits of their forefathers, that there are 

 but few houses or cottages that do not have their 

 " skeps " of bees ; and the business of looking after 

 swarms, in which neighbour willingly helps neighbour, 

 forms one of the most pleasant elements in the life. 



But you might live a long time without hearing much 

 of it, if you did not begin to keep bees yourself as I 

 did. Then you suddenly become the centre of a kind 

 of informal society, in which everything about the bees 

 is discussed not only the quantities of honey obtained, 

 but also points relative to the habits of the bees, and 

 the best means of "strengthing" them through the 



