INTRODUCTION TO BEE-KEEPING. 123 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



INTRODUCTION TO BEE-KEEPING. 



If you have read the former part of this book with 

 attention, you now feel, I hope, some interest in 

 the subject of bees, and see that they are indeed 

 marvellous little insects, deserving of all care and 

 attention. As a consequence, I hope you feel that 

 you would like to keep bees, and see for yourself 

 some of the wonderful things of which I have been 

 speaking. And I am quite sure that, if you only 

 have a suitable place in which to keep them, and, 

 chief of all, if you have got, as it is termed, ' a head 

 on your shoulders,' and a kind heart to love all God's 

 creatures — ' all things both great and small ' — and to 

 treat them well, you may thus keep them, and find 

 enjoyment in the pursuit, and also get some profit in 

 the shape of money for the savings' bank. Boys and 

 girls of thirteen or fourteen years old may very well 

 keep and manage one or two hives. 



But how can you make even such a start as this ? 

 Well, I will tell you. You must begin bee-keeping by 

 keeping together your pence and sixpences — by 

 saving up with care — until you have got together 

 perhaps ten shillings, or a little more, with which to 

 buy a stock or swarm of bees in a straw hive. This 

 will be a small beginning, but it is best to begin in a 

 little way. There is a proverb which says, 'Who 

 goes slowly goes long, and goes fan' And again it 



