PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



The generous reception which was accorded to the first 

 edition of this Guide more than justified the publication of 

 the book, and confirmed the opinion that " there was need for 

 a guide to Beekeeping which should supply information and 

 advice of a more extensive nature than an\- yet published in 

 this country.'' The Press reviews, without an exception, com- 

 mended It, not only in the United Kingdom, but also in the 

 Colonies and in far away foreign lands. The craft — practical 

 beekeepers engaged in the industry and capable of judging by 

 experience — welcomed the book, and a large number of these 

 were kind enough to write to me expressing their approval 

 in very gracious words. Several hundreds of such letters 

 were received, and welcomed as evidences of that good nattire 

 in bee-lovers which has become proverbial the world over and 

 has placed me under obligations to many whom, otherwise 

 unknown, a mutual interest has constituted familiar and 

 faithful friends. Not a few of those communications were 

 such as might well compensate any man for years of investi- 

 gation and work. '' I have read it at meals, read it at night, 

 and read it at dawn, and from a woman simply desirous of 

 earning a little money by keeping bees, I have become an 

 enthusiast '' : an English correspondent put it so. From an 

 earnest, de^'oted monk, in another country, came the words — 

 " I never fail to carry it with me as a good companion when- 

 ever I am absent from home." From Australia, a practical 

 apiarist wrote — " 1 travel all over the State as Government 

 Expert, but never without the Guide. I have read and re-read 

 it. It has fascinated me. It is like The Old Book — always 

 interesting.'" From a 40-foot canoe, on the river of Uganda, 

 a travelling oflBcial wrote in similar strains. The book has 

 reached the most distant parts, and there, it is hoped, as welt 

 as in these countries, has achieved some, at least, of the 

 objects with which it was published. 



For the present edition the original work has been tho- 

 roughly revised. Alany new paragraphs have been added, 

 treating of such subjects as the "W.B.C." Hive, the "LB. A. 

 iQog " Hive, " Claustral Detention Chambers," " Searching for 

 the Queen," the " Isle of Wight Disease," Recent Investiga- 

 tions into the Cause of Foul Brood, etc., and a new chapter on 

 "Exhibiting and Judging Bee Products," has been introduced 

 in response to a frequently expressed wish. The number of 

 illustrations has also been increased by the insertion of 20 

 new blocks, while, of those in the first edition, I have removed 



