CONCLUSION. 1389 
To succeed with bees, we should recollect that per- 
sonal experience is the best guide ; and next to this is the 
instruction of those engaged in the business, who prove 
by the results which follow their management, that they 
make bee culture profitable. In commencing bee keep- 
ing 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 ac- 
quainted 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 and get such 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, ) such a queen is liable 
to fail at any time, and loss of stock follows. 
In commencing to keep bees, if possible start with good; 
strong, healthy stocks, in the right kind of a hive; then 
you will have no difficulty in changing 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 moveable 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 Hives, 
