Making a Start in Bee-keeping 15 



ing extensively. No hard and fast rules can be laid down, so much 

 depending upon circumstances. A young man with no established busi- 

 ness would do well to pass one or two seasons in the employ of some 

 experienced bee-keeper, as has been already suggested, while an older 

 man already in busienss, with a family to support, may find it advisable 

 to work into bee-keeping gradually, reading and studying as his bees 

 increase. Whatever the method employed, let the work be thorough ; 

 and, especially, let there be plenty of actual experience before venturing 

 extensively. 



As a rule, a man already has some bees when he decides to become 

 a bee-keeper. Perhaps he never formally makes any such decision. He 

 captures a stray swarm, or cuts a bee-tree and saves the bees, and the 

 stock increases with such wonderful rapidity that the owner becomes 

 a bee-keeper ere he scarcely realizes it. This wonderful rapidity with 

 which bees increase is one strong argument in favor of a man securing 

 a few colonies and building them up into an apiary instead of buying 

 a large number of colonies at the beginning. By rearing queens with 

 which to furnish the newly made colonies, and furnishing them with 

 full sheets of comb foundation, the extent to which bees can be increased 

 in a favorable season is something almost beyond belief. Just how or 

 where the first colonies shall be secured may well be considered. As a 

 rule, the man who has steady work, at good wages, had better buy bees 

 in such movable-comb hives as he intends to use. If he can get them 

 near home, of some reliable bee-keeper, so much the better. Of course, 

 there are instances in which a man has more time than money, or there 

 may be a trace of the sportsman in his make-up, and, in either case, the 

 hunting of bees, or the putting-out of decoy hives to catch stray swarms, 

 will make to him a strong appeal. In those parts of the country where 

 many bees are kept, yet there is not much timber, as in Colorado or 

 California, there is no difficulty in catching swarms in decoy hives ; in 

 fact, there is difficulty in keeping swarms out of chimneys and the walls 

 of buildings. While out riding one day with Mr. Gill, of Colorado, he 

 pointed out one house in the walls of which five colonies had their homes. 

 In California Mr. Mendleson set away three empty hives in his wagon- 

 shed ; and when I was there, swarms had taken possession of two of 

 the hives. Even in well-timbered localities, stray swarms are frequently 

 caught in decoy hives. Mr. George A. Fenton, of Pine Island, Min- 

 nesota, reported in the Review, in 1900, that he had, the previous year, 

 caught more than 50 swarms in decoy hives. He used ordinary boxes 

 instead of hives, and put them pretty high up in tall trees, as a good 

 hive, easily accessible, is quite likely to be stolen. A piece of old black 

 comb is fastened inside the hive or box, and the latter firmly fastened 

 to the tree so as not to be easily blown down, a position being chosen 



