BEES, BEE-HIVES, AND BEE CULTURE. 113 



An apiary m the garden of every village clergyman would afford the 

 means of economising this unclaimed bounty of Providence. 



Bees may be very inexpensively and profitably kept in the 

 Cottager's hive (see page 34), which will be found a very productive 

 one. It is true that it has not the appliances of windows and bell 

 glaipses ; for the cottager is not supposed so much to care for his 

 hives as a source of amusement ; his object in bee-keeping is simply 

 the profit it may bring. Por those of our readers who wish to have 

 united the facility of observing the bees with that of the plentiful 

 production of honey, we would especially recommend the " Improved 

 Cottage " hive, described at page 28. If inclined to go to a little 

 further expense, the hives numbered 1, 2, 3, and 7, all afford 

 constant opportunity for inspection of the bees, and allow of their 

 working freely in the most natural manner. 



There are few hobbies which cost so little outlay as the keeping 

 of bees. Once the " plant " of hives is purchased, there is little, 

 if any, additional expense, and always a probability of a fair return. , 

 If honey be obtainable, the bees will find it ; they work for nothing, 

 and provide themselves with sustenance, requiring only a very 

 little labour from their keepers, and that labour is of a pleasing and 

 instructive kind. 



To the advanced and skilful apiarian we would especially 

 commend the use of the Bar-and-frame hives. With these, as we 

 have attempted to show, the bee-keeper has a full command over 

 his hives and bees. Many mistakes, it is true, have been made by- 

 uninitiated bee-keepers in using the more elaborate hives. Being 

 struck with the remarkable facilities afforded by these superior hives 

 for the extraction of any one comb, and, perhaps, fascinated with their 

 easy sway over so highly organized a community, these new-fangled 

 bee-keepers have acquired a habit of perpetually and incautiously med- 

 dling with the bees. The inevitable results in such cases are distress 

 to the bees, impoverishment of the stocks, and loss and vexation to 

 the over zealous apiarian. All these things may be avoided, if it 

 be remembered that there are first steps in bee-keeping, as well as in 

 croquet, chemistry, or cricket. In bee-keeping, as in floriculture^ 

 it is a great point to know when to " let well alone." There is no 

 florist, however anxious for a prize, who would be continually 

 pulling up his plants to see how their roots were growing. Doubt- 

 less, the full control which the bars and frames afford over the inmost 



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