36 ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 



IMPOBTANCE OF STAETINO BIGHT. 



You are the architect of your business — yes, of your whole life; so 

 let no opportunity for Improvement pass unimproved. Before entering 

 upon bee-keeping or any other line of business, be sure you start right. 

 My friend, did you ever realize the importance of those two words, 

 •'start right?" Teach your little children to study them; and when you 

 see those poor drifting wrecks of humanity wandering up and down 

 your highways in their abject poverty, tell your children that those poor 

 souls which are now fairly steeped in vice and crime are the result of 

 starting wrong in this life, and that only God knows what the result 

 will be in the life to come. 



Please pardon me in so often drifting from my subject; but when 

 I think of that short sentence it seems as if I could write a whole volume 

 on its importance. 



THE KIGJIT WAY TO MAKE INCBEASE. 



There are various ways of making increase. We prefer to build up 

 the colonies to be divided until they are very strong in bees and brood; 

 then when the division is made and the queenless part is given a laying 

 queen, we soon have two good colonies ready for the harvest. We think 

 this is a much better way than to build up nuclei. Let the same rule 

 apply to making increase, as all other work in the apiary, which should 

 be a harmonizing with your knowledge and the natural instincts of your 

 bees. This is quite important in order to secure the best results. If we 

 adopt methods according to their natural instincts then surely we shall 

 secure better results than if we try to force them into unnatural condi- 

 tions, which to quite an extent soon causes them to become discouraged. 



July, 1907. 



This subject has received, perhaps, as much thought and study as 

 any other one thing connected with bee-keeping, and I will try to show 

 that, with proper management, you can have two colonies, each nearly 

 uquat to what the mother colony would have been for the clover har- 

 vest, if not divided, and fully equal for a later harvest. 



in calling your attention to this matter I take it for granted that 

 you keep bees like myself, for the purpose of making the most money 

 out of them you can, regardless of increase or the number of colonies 

 you may have. Simply make what increase will add to your present 

 season's crop of honey. In the first place, let me impress upon your 

 mind the importance of doing every thing in your power, not only to 

 Duild up all your colonies as strong in bees as you can after taking them 

 from their winter quarters, but to keep them in that condition to the 



