IM THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



be lost. K many colonies are kept, a competent person 

 should always be on hand, in the height of the season, to 

 attend to the bees. Even the Sabbath cannot be observSft 

 as a day of rest ; as the bee-keeper is often compelled to 

 spend it in hard work among his bees. Although it is as 

 proper for him to hive his bees on that day, as it is to take 

 care of his other stock, still, the liability to such labor de- 

 ters many from Apiarian pursuits. 



Many merchants, mechanics, and professional men, who 

 ■wish to keep bees, cannot superintend them during the 

 swarming-season ; and are thus often kept from a pursuit 

 Latensely fascinating to an inquiring mind.* No man who 

 spends some- of his leisure in studying the wonderful in- 

 stincts of bees, will ever complain that he can find nothing 

 to fiU up his time, out of the range of his business or the 

 gratification of his appetites. Bees may be kept with 

 great advantage, even in large cities, and those who are 

 debarred from rural pursuits may still listen to their sooth- 

 ing hum, and harvest annually their delicious nectar. 



K the Apiarian could always be at home during the 

 swarming-season, it would still be oftentimes very incon- 

 venient for him to attend to his bees. The farmer, for 

 mstance, may be interrupted in the business of hay-mak- 

 ing, by the cry that his bees are swarming; and by the 

 time he has hived them, perhaps a shower comes up, and 

 his hay is injured more than the swanu is worth. Thus, 

 the keeping of a few bees, mstead of being a source of 

 profit, may prove an expensive luxury ; -while in a large 

 Apiary, the embarrassments are often seriously increased. 

 If, after a succession of days unfavorable for swai-ming, 

 the weather becomes pleasant, it often happens that 



* "Bee-life," says Prof, Siebold, "does not merely serrc to fiirnlsli man with 

 wax, honey, and mead, but constitutes an extremely important link In the great 

 and most mnltifiurioualy-composed chain of animal existence." 



