134 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



ence that bees are very accommodating insects, 

 and will adapt themselves to almost any variety 

 of home, provided it is sufficiently dark and 

 secure from the attacks of animals. 



My first year's experience consisted in open- 

 ing the hives every day or two, after suffocating 

 all the bees with five times the necessary amount 

 of smoke, and studying what was going on in- 

 side. This effectually prevented the bees from 

 making any honey, but it gave me some insight 

 into their habits, and a very perfect knowledge 

 of the treatment of stings. As to honey, the 

 first year was only a partial success. The very 

 day after the beehive arrived and had been put 

 in place, I put over the frames every honey-box 

 that came with the hive, and watched for the 

 result. In one of my books it is recorded that 

 a swarm of bees will sometimes bring in as 

 much as twenty pounds of honey in one day ; 

 my bees had evidently never read this book. 

 I could not find that they brought in an ounce, 

 unless for their own use. After some weeks of 

 anxious watching and disappointment, I con- 

 sulted a neighbor, who knew somebody else 

 whose brother had once had a beehive, and in 

 the end I discovered that an old farmer ten 



