CHAPTER V. 



now TO MAKE A STAIIT IN BEE-KEEPING. 



ITow often are failure and disappointment in bee-keeping 

 brought about by a bad start ! 



If the would-be npiarist has a fiiend who keeps bees, he 

 should obtain his advice as to purcliasing a stock. A very 

 good start can be made with one or two strong stocks of bees 

 in skeps, which can easily be obtained from some cottage bee- 

 keeper in the neighbourhood. Tlie beginning of April is the 

 best time to purchase them. The tyro should get his. f liend to 

 inspect the bees and to tell him if the stocks are strong and 

 in good condition before he purchases. Preference should be 

 given to stocks which have swarmed the previous summer, as 

 they would be sure to have young queens. 



But should the novice have no friend who keeps bees, he 

 had better not buy stocks in skep^, as they may turn out to be 

 weak, and do but little work all the summer. It would be 

 l)etter to buy a first swarm in May from a straw skep, the 

 price usually asked being about ten shillings.* 



In moving an old stock in April it should be borne in mind 

 that, if moved less than a mile and a half or two miles, many 

 of the old bees wi ll go back to the place where they used to be. 

 But the bees of a swarm, whether hived only a few feet or 

 several miles from the parent hive, mark the position of their 

 new home, and do not return to their old hive. 



Supposing that the amateur has obtained a stock of bees 

 in a straw skep, he will need a bar-frame hive to put the 

 expected swarm in ; or, if he has bought a swarm, one will be 

 required for it ; and, if half-a-dozen frames of empty comb are 

 a^-ailable, there is a very fair chance of obtaining some honey 

 from a strong, early swarm. In this case a di\-ision-boar(l 

 should be placed on each side of the frames, to keep the bees 

 out of the rest of the hive, and a crate of sections should be 

 placed on the top of the frames ; in a week or ten daj's a fresh 



* Since tlie war the average price for first swarms has increased to about forty 

 shiUintrs. 



