ADVICE TO BEGINNERS. 519 



Mistakes that Beginners Are Liablk to Make. 



896. 1. — They are apt to think themselves posted after 

 they have read the theory, and before they get the practice. 



2. — Ilonce they are apt to invent or adopt new hives, 

 that are lacking in the most important features (358). 



5. — They are apt to think that bees are harvesting honey, 

 at times when they are starving. They should remember 

 that each honey crop usually lasts only a few days, — a few 

 weeks at most. 



4. — They are apt to mistake young bees on their first trip 

 for robbers and vice versa. Young bees fly out in the after- 

 noon only, and do not hunt around corners. Robbers are 

 gorged with honey when coming out of the plundered hive, 

 and a number of them are slick, hairless and shiny. Bees 

 that have been fed in the hive or whose combs have been 

 damaged, or extracted, and returned to the hive, act like 

 robbers, and incite robbing (664). 



5. — They are apt to overdo artificial swarming (481). 



6. — They are apt to extract too much honey from the 

 brood-combs (771). 



7. — They underestimate the value of good worker comb. 

 (676). 



8. — They do not pay sufTicient attention to the removal 

 of the excess of drone-comb (675). 



9. — They become easilydiscouraged by Winter losses and 

 Spring dwindling. Some of our most successful Apiarists 

 periodically lose a large portion of their colonies, and 

 promptly recruit again, by the help of their empty worker- 

 combs (676). 



20. — When they find bee-keeping successful, they are 

 liable to rush into it on too large a scale before being suffi- 

 ciently acquainted with it. ' ' If there is any business in 



