302 STARTING AN APIARY. 



to annoy them, the leafy branches furnish a shelter from its 

 ardent rays, and diffuse around a grateful coolness. The 

 shade, however, ought not to be too dense, nor the branches 

 so low as to interfere wiih the flight of the bees; and if 

 they are kept in the open air, during the Winter, it will 

 often be necessary, when the cold weather sets in, to remove 

 them from under the trees, to a more sheltered place. Those 

 who follow the common swarming plan, will have to 

 make all other things bend to the necessity of putting 

 their colonies where the new swarms may always be seen or 

 beard. 



Procuring Bees to start an AriARr. 



A person ignorant of bees, must rely chiefly on the hon- 

 esty of those from whom he purchases. Many slocks are 

 not worth accepting as a gift, but like a horse or cow, in- 

 curably diseased, will only prove a vexatious bill of expense. 

 If an inexperienced person wishes to commence bee-keeping, 

 I advise him to purchase a new swarm of bees. It ought to 

 be large and early. Second swarms, and all late and small 

 first swarms, should never be purchased by beginners. 

 Tliey are very apt, in such hands, to prove worthless. It 

 would be safe to order a swarm of any bee-keeper, if all 

 were of that exemplary class of whom an English Country 

 Curate says, " In all my experience, I never yet met with a 

 keeper of bees, who was not a respectable, well conducted 

 member of society, and a moral, if not a religious man." 

 This, however, is so far from being true, that some ofl^er for 

 sale, stocks which are worthless, or impose on the ignorant, 

 small first swarms, and second, and even third swarms, as 

 prime ones worth the highest market price. If the novice 

 purchases an old stock, he may have the perplexities of 



