PREFACE. 
After repeated requests from friends, readers of ‘‘ The 
British Bee Journal’ and ‘‘ The Bee-Keepers’ Record,’ and 
also from members of the audience at a large number of the 
lectures which I have given in every part of the British 
Islands, that I should write a cheap, concise, and up-to-date 
Handbook on Bee-keeping suitable for the Cottager and 
Smallholder, and realising that at the conclusion of the present 
terrible war the country will have to be more self-supporting 
for its food supply, and that what are now considered small 
industries, amongst which bee-keeping is included, will obtain 
their legitimate recognition, I have felt compelled to try and 
meet their wishes. This small book is the result. 
It is not claimed that it is an exhaustive treatise on the 
subject, but I have endeavoured to give in plain language 
simple methods of managing bees suitable for those who wish 
to keep, or who already possess, a few stocks. Having 
mastered the rudiments of the craft, those who become 
ambitious may gain further knowledge by reading more 
advanced works. 
Without egotism, I claim that my varied experience 
during the past twenty-five years, first as a workman in the 
factories of appliance manufactures, afterwards as a touring 
expert, and finally as a teacher and lecturer, being 
also the owner of a large apiary, enables me to give 
the advice required from actual experience instead of 
bolstering it up with theory and useless padding; neither has 
other writers’ matter been cribbed and passed off as my own, 
which, unfortunately, is the practice of some persons who 
from mercenary motives try to obtain a reputation for know- 
ledge which they do not possess, and who attempt to foist 
their purloined goods upon unsuspecting persons. 
