2 Bee-keeping for Beginners. 



good thing for a man to have a hobby. If it is a 

 paying hobby, so much the better. Bee-keeping is 

 one of the most paying occupations in existence. 

 Bees can not only find their own food, but if kept 

 on intelligent lines will produce a surplus — and a 

 good surplus — of honey for the owners. Here, then, 

 are the two chief advantages of bee-keeping — (i) 

 health ; (2) profit. It is a hobby, moreover, that 

 will last all the year round, for long winter evenings 

 may be utilized in making hives and other requisites 

 for bee-keeping. Many instances of the profits of 

 bee-keeping might be given. Pettigrew, who was a 

 very successful bee-keeper, says : " My father, James 

 Pettigrew, was a labouring man, and perhaps the 

 greatest bee-keeper that Scotland ever produced. He 

 was so successful and enthusiastic in the management 

 of his bees that he earned and received the cognomen 

 of the ' Bee-man ' ; and by this name he was well 

 known for thirty years in a wider circle than the parish 

 of Carluke, Lanarkshire, in which he resided. The 

 district of the parish in which he lived when he kept 

 most hives, took then the name of ' Honey Bank, ' 

 which it still bears. While a common labouring man 

 he saved a great deal of money from his bees ; indeed, 

 it was reported in the Glasgow newspapers that he 

 realized i^ioo profit from them one season. The bee- 

 man saved money enough to purchase the Black Bull 

 Inn of the village, and therein commence business as 

 a publican and butcher. " 



