CHAPTER II. 



OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN APIARY, CHOICE OF A SITUATION, 

 AMD REQUISITES FOR ITS WELFARE. 



There are some parts of England where, it is to be feared, the utmost 

 attention to bee-keeping can meet with only very partial success. In 

 such places, it is but once, perhaps, in four or five years that anything 

 like a fair harvest of honey is obtained. It may be asked, therefore, 

 is it worth while encountering the many vexations and discourage- 

 ments of the intermediate years, for the sake of this inadequate, and 

 only occasional, remuneration ? This is a question, of course, for every 

 intending bee keeper to answer for himself. Having myself kept bees 

 for about seven years in a locality of this kind, I can speak feelingly 

 of the disappointment and loss occasioned by it. In all that time, I 

 never had the good fortune to obtain a single pound of honey by fair 

 means ; ' and what I did obtain, at the cost of a hive's sacrifice, was both 

 poor in quality and insignificant in quantity. Nor was my case at all 

 singular in this respect, my neighbors to a man complaining "of the like 

 ill success, in spite of attention and pains bestowed, without grudging. 

 I was in consequence very nearly giving up the pursuit, as many oth- 

 ers had done before me, although not reputed to be readily daunted 

 by mishaps. My advice, therefore, to every aspiring bee keeper, who 

 can assure- himself that the locality in which he happens to reside is 

 of this nature, is this: to let bee-heepmg alone. Happily, however, such 

 instances of very bad locality are rare. Most places will at least amply 

 repay the labor and cost of establishing an apiary ; while some few 

 highly-favored districts will yield astonishing supplies of the most de- 

 licious nectar. Whoever happens to reside in the vicinity of large 

 woods, heaths, or commons, or still better, within reach of all these 

 together, may consider himself especially fortunate. A broken coun- 

 try, however — by which I mean a country devoted to no particular 



