258 METHOD OF ESTABLISHING AN APIARY. 



rience, to decide on the badness or excellence of a 

 hive ; and thus, perhaps, at the very outset of their 

 undertaking, a failure ensues, and the pursuit is re- 

 linquished, arising from a groundless idea of the 

 difficulties which attendSts prosecution. 



" The usual methods of establishing an apiary are, 

 either by the purchase of stocks or of swarms or, 

 in some instances, by the settling of a vagabondizing 

 swarm in your garden, which by the country house- 

 wives is always considered as a real God-send ; 

 remembering to forget that, they have as much legal 

 right to the swarm, as they have to the cow or pig 

 which may have strayed into their premises. In 

 the purchase of stocks, the following essential points 

 should be attended to, without a knowledge of 

 which, the young apiarian will find himself deceived, 

 at the very moment when his expectations of ulti- 

 mate success are raised to the highest pitch. It is 

 with a bee hive as with a wife, never take one on 

 the recommendation of another person, but be your 

 own judge of its merits and defects. If it be your 

 intention to purchase a stock, repair to the garden 

 in which it stands, about the middle of the day, 

 and placing yourself before it, pay particular atten- 

 tion to the actions of the bees. If you observe them 

 crowding in and out of the hive, and a considerable 

 number of them having little yellow pellets or balls 

 on their hinder legs, a very favourable opinion may 

 be formed of the health and condition of the interior, 

 and especially of the prolific state of the queen. If 

 the examination take place previously to the swarm- 

 ing season, pay particular attention to the number 

 of drones; this is an infallible criterion of the po- 



