66 BEES FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 



Economy. 



In concluding this chapter I can only repeat to the reader 

 how essential the strictest economy is when the apiarist 

 desires to make money by breeding bees for sale. Unforeseen 

 misfortunes occur, which reduce the profits and increase the 

 expenses, so that I advise every one to try working only one 

 stock for increase at first, till he gains experience. 



Books on Queen-Rearing. 



The method of queen-rearing detailed in this chapter is 

 undoubtedly the best for the tyro. When he has become an 

 adept at it by repeated experience, he should, if he desires to 

 raise queens on a very large scale — let us say by the hundred 

 — study such works as " Queen Rearing in England," by 

 F. W, L. Sladen (price Is. 6d. ; published by Madgwick, 

 Houlston, & Co.) ; and Doolittle's " Scientific Queen Rearing" 

 (price 'Ss. Qd. post free) — the latter book being published 

 in America, and obtainable from Messrs. Steele tt Brodie, 

 Wormit, Fife, Scotland, and also, at present, from the British 

 Bee Journal Office. 



The experienced bee-master will find Mr. Doolittle's book 

 of great value. Amongst other things it explains a method — 

 highly convenient for those who possess only a few hives — by 

 which two young queens may be raised and mated in a colony, 

 during a heavy honey floiL\ without either removing the old 

 queen or splitting up the colony into nuclei. 



I cannot, however, too strongly point out that beginners 

 who embark on such methods before they have had consider- 

 able practical experience of bees, and have thoroughly mastered 

 the far simpler methods of queen raising already detailed in 

 this chapter, are almost sure to meet with disappointment and 

 failure. 



The beginner will do well to bear in mind Henry Geary's 

 useful adage that " There is no royal road to success in bee- 

 craft. What is required is perseverance and a commencement 

 at the bottom of the ladder — not an initial fall from the top 

 runfif." 



