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HIC best time for a beginner to get his first bees is in spring, say 

 about the 25th of May, after all danger of loss from wintering and 

 spring dwindling is past. But, if the subject is entirely new to him, 

 the beginner will require some mental preparation, which, perhajjs. 

 lie had better commence in the long evenings of the previous fall. 

 He should read all the works on bee culture within his reach.' 'l"he 

 study of several authors is advised, because when a student has to get up the 

 natural history, the anatomy, and the physiology of the honey bee without the 

 aid of such teachers as Prof. Cook, of Lansing, Mich., or Prof, ("larke, of (luelph, 

 ( )iu., lie will get a belter knowledge of these subjects by comparing the teachings 

 of diftere'nt authors on the same points. For instance it would be difficult to 

 find anything better on the natural history of the honey bee than the first 40 

 pages of Dziertzan's Rational Bee-Keeping ; but when the student has read, in 

 addition to this, the first 100 pages of Langstroth on the Honey Bee, revised by 

 Dadant, and the first 140 pages of (,'ook's Manual of the Apiary, he will feel 

 that he has a better grip of the subject than he could possibly get by confining 

 his studies to either one of these authors. If the beginner has, by this time, 

 become deeply interested, and desires to study the scientific part of the subject 

 still further. Cowan's Honey Bee, and Cheshire's Bees and Bee-Keeping, \'ol 1. 

 will probably keep him busy till spring, 'ywo chapters in the latter work, 

 entitled Bees and Flowers Mutually Complimentary, and Bees as Fertilizers, 

 Florists and Fruit Producers, are very instructive and exceedingly interesting to 

 horticulturists as well as bee-keepers. While engaged in the study of those 

 authors, the student may get a few bees for examination from some neighbor 

 If he has a good magnifying glass, or, better still, a good microscope, muth 

 im[)ortant information may be gathered by examining the various parts of the bee. 

 Iwo or three stocks are cjuite sufficient to commence with. The bees should 

 be of a quiet strain of Italians, and they should be in movable frame hives : tin.- 

 Langstroth is as good as any. 'llie beginner should provide himself with a bee 

 veil and a smoker. If his motions are slow and deliberate, as they always should 

 be when working about his hives, gloves are unnecessary. But by all means let 

 the beginner provide himself with an ob.servatory hive. .Vbout the middle of 

 June he may go to (jne of his hi\es and remove a brood t:omb, with the queen 

 and adhering bees, and place it in a hive having glass sides, through which all 

 the operations of the bees may be readily seen. This hive may be placed in a 

 window in the living-room of the dwelling. A passage may be made for the 

 bees by raising the sash, and |ilaring beneath it a piec<' of wood through which 



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