PREFACE. 



The writer, devoted to bees from boyhood, started life 

 with the intention of earning his living from them. Like 

 many other enthusiasts, he kept an apiary and sold the honey. 

 He established an out-apiary. He sold all the honey he 

 could produce at a good price, and in order to satisfy the 

 demand for more he had to go to other bee-keepers for help. 

 But, while it was easy by these means to earn sufficient to 

 maintain himself, the uncertainty of the British climate made 

 it impossible for him to support a family as well, which was 

 his next ambition. He was also possessed with a longing to 

 become still more intimate with his bees. Was it possible 

 for these two desires to be attained ? Yes. Fully, and more 

 than fully were they gratified by taking up bee-breeding 

 and specialising in queen-rearing. 



The notes gathered together in this little volume are the 

 result of about fifteen years' experience in developing and 

 managing a queen-rearing apiary as a commercial under- 

 taking on the coast of Kent. Most of the operations 

 described are well-known and widely practised in America, 

 but many of them, together with the appliances employed, 

 are modified to meet the requirements of the British climate, 

 and some of the details are new. The bees employed were 

 chiefly British Goldens and Golden-English hybrids, the 

 behaviour of which probably differs in some few details from 

 that of pure blacks or pure Italians. 



American queen-breeders will detect evidences of less 

 favourable weather conditions than their own on almost 

 every page; yet perhaps they will find the book worth perusal, 

 for a trying climate teaches useful lessons. 



"Queen-rearing in England" originally appeared in 

 the British Bee Journal in March and April, 1904. The next 

 year it was revised and published in book form. The first 

 edition being now exhausted, the opportunity has been taken 

 to rewrite the book ; it is now considerably larger than the 

 former edition, much new matter having been added. 



