144 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



be lost. If many colonies are kept, a competent person 

 should always be on band, in the height of the season, to 

 attend to the bees. Even the Sabbath cannot be observed 

 as a day of rest ; as the bee-keeper is often compelled to 

 spend it in hard work among his bees. Although it is as 

 proper for him to hive his bees .on that day, as it is to take 

 care of his other stock, still, the liability to such labor de- 

 ters many from Apiarian pursuits. 



Many merchants, mechanics, and professional men, who 

 wish to keep bees, cannot superintend them during the 

 swarming-season ; and are thus often kept from a pursuit 

 intensely fascinating to an inquiring mind.* No man who 

 spends some of his leisure in studying the wonderful in- 

 stincts of bees, will ever complain that he can find nothing 

 to fill up his time, out of the range of his business or the 

 gratification of his appetites. Bees may be kept with 

 great advantage, even in large cities, and those who are 

 debarred from rural pursuits may still listen to their sooth- 

 ing hum, and harvest annually their delicious nectar. 



If the Apiarian could always be at home during the 

 swarming-season, it would still be oftentimes very incon- 

 venient for him to attend to his bees. The farmer, for 

 instance, may be interrupted in the business of hay-mak- 

 ing, by the cry that his bees are swarming; and by the" 

 time he has hived them, perhaps a shower comes up, .and 

 his hay is injured more than the swarm is worth. Thus, 

 the keeping of a few bees, instead of being a source of 

 profit, may prove an expensive luxury ; while in a large 

 Apiary, the embarrassments are often seriously increased. 

 If, after a succession of days unfavorable for swarming, 

 the weather becomes pleasant, it often happens that 



* "Bee-life," says Prof. Siebold, "does not merely serve to furnish man with 

 wax, honey, and mead, but constitutes an extremely important link in the gre.it 

 and most multifariously-composed chain of animal existence." 



