GOLDEN RULES. iS'' 



GOLDEN RULES FOR BEE-FARMERS. 



We extract the following notes from a kind of bee- 

 diary — or rather notes of an amateur's work in apiarian 

 matters, trusting they may be useful to those who are in- 

 experienced in these things, and thus prevent loss, and, 

 what is even worse to some people, disappointment. Many 

 of our friends who have commenced an apiary have given 

 up the pursuit solely because they did not find it all 

 straightforward, and met at first with a few disappoint- 

 ments. 



The golden rule in bee-keeping is, " Keep your stocks 

 strong." For the first few years of our bee-keeping we 

 tried to increase our stocks as rapidly as possible. To do 

 this we hived every swarm as a separate colony, and in 

 some seasons our old stocks have thrown ofF a swarm and 

 two casts. These were all hived in separate skeps, thus 

 making three stocks, where, if we had been wise, there 

 would only have been one. It was what in other things 

 would have been called "making haste to be rich." How- 

 ever, the result was nothing but loss and disappointment 

 the ensuing season. 



Some of the casts, or what are generally known as 

 swarms, would not, if measured, have contained a pint of 

 bees. Being so small at the commencement, we could not 

 expect them to make good strong colonies. Perhaps had 

 we been sufficiently wide-awake we could in the autumn 

 have placed in each hive two or three condemned cottagers' 

 stocks, then they might have wintered well, and very 

 likely had a fair start in spring. We fed them liberally 

 with syrup and honey, still they seemed to dwindle 

 gradually away, and the coming spring saw them all dead, 

 or so very feeble and weak as to be worthless. 



The reason why we hear such an outcry against bees 



