1 14 A Modern Bee Farm 



the purchase. However, so that I may be doubly sure, 

 for a long time past I have made a practice of sending out 

 no bees as nuclei or stocks, unless they have been recently 

 established on new combs, and it would be well for the 

 general welfare if no others were sold. My apiary at the 

 time referred to was in a perfectly healthy district, and I 

 was so careful during the prevalence of the malady among 

 my own bees that it did not extend to the neighbourhood. 

 I was in the habit of driving and otherwise manipulating 

 the bees within a radius of three to four miles, and in no 

 case did I find the least evidence of the complaint. 



How then did the plague find its way to my own 

 apiary ? How indeed I Well, I was engaged in a 

 business which did not permit me to give any of the usual 

 hours of the working day to the bees. Honey had been 

 coming in rapidly, and I thought to relieve the brood 

 combs of the new honey, just as many another enthusiast 

 with the wonderful honey extractor liked to do in those 

 days ; but unfortunately my operation was carried out 

 with the rising sun just beginning to smile upon me, and 

 if I had not been so pre-occupied it is just possible I 

 should have noticed him giving an approving nod at my 

 industry, and a smiling whisper that " the early bird 

 catches the worms." 



Anyhow my catch was something of quite an unexpected 

 nature, and ultimately most industrious labour indeed was 

 required to undo that early morning's work. I can see 

 now, the beautiful combs of healthy brood, and I can also 

 see how utterly impossible it was for it to remain alive 

 after those incautiously induced revolutions during the 

 chilly morning air. At the time, however, and for months 

 after I did not consider the harm that might result, 

 and was otherwise too much occupied to examine the 

 hives. I eventually found the combs almost denuded 



