CONCLUSION. 147 



To succeed with bees, we should recollect that 

 personal experience is the best guide ; and next to 

 this is the instruction of tlnose engaged in tlie busi- 

 ness, who prove by the results which follow their 

 management, that they make bee culture profitable. 

 In commencing bee keeping, if you purchase bees, 

 use great care in doing so. Buy none but strong, 

 healthy stocks. If you purchase in box hives or 

 patent hives, you will be very likely, if not acquaint- 

 ed with bees, or unless purchasing of some reliable 

 person, to get diseased stocks ; and again, a person 

 who keeps bees by the ordinary methods, is very 

 likely to have diseased stocks which he thinks are 

 all right. So, great care is necessary in buying 

 your outfit to commence bee keeping. Diseased 

 stocks are dear at any price. You want the very 

 best to start with, if you can possibly get them. Be 

 sure to get sucli stocks as have young queens, for if 

 the stock has a queen four years old or more,, (and 

 they are likely to be that old in box or patent hives, 

 under ordinary management,) suclr a queen is liable 

 to fail at any time, and loss of the stock follows. 



In commencing to keep bees, if possible start 

 with good, strong, healtliy stocks, in the right kind 

 of a hive ; then you will have no difficulty in chang- 

 ing them. But if this cannot possibly be done, be 

 sure to start with strong, healthy stocks. If you 

 must take second-class hives, of this class the plain 

 movable comb and box hives are best. But be sure 

 to let the patent hives entirely alone ; they are a 

 curse to the bee keeper. If you get your bees in 

 second-class hives, transfer them to Controllable 



