CHAPTER VI 



THE PRODUCTION OF HONEY 



The main thing with nine-tenths of the people 

 who keep bees is the production of honey and 

 the pecuniary benefits to be derived from the 

 sale of that valuable article of food. Now keep- 

 ing bees and producing honey in large quantities 

 are two widely different things, as many people 

 have before now found out. Many people, in fact 

 anybody, can keep bees, but it is not everyone 

 who can become a bee-keeper. A keeper, of bees 

 and a bee-keeper are by no means synonymous 

 terms. 



A bee-keeper must be in sympathy with his 

 charges: he must understand their peculiarities 

 and be thoroughly alive to their every need, both 

 immediate and prospective. The mere fact of 

 having bees in the garden is not to be taken as 

 an augury of honey in the cupboard, for in some 

 seasons the production of honey calls for skill 

 on the part of the bee-keeper of no mean order. 

 I could take as an instance the season just past, 

 'when probably not more than one-Jh-ird of the 



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