CHAPTER VI 
THE PRODUCTION OF HONEY 
THE main thing with nine-tenths of the people 
who keep bees is the production of honey and 
the pecuniary, benefits to be derived from the 
sale of that valuable article of food. Now keep- 
ing bees and producing honey in large quantities 
are two widely different things, as many people 
have before now found out. Many people, in fact 
anybody, can keep bees, but it is not everyone 
who can become a bee-keeper. A keeper of bees 
and a bee-keeper are by, no means synonymous 
terms, 
A bee-keeper must be in sympathy with his 
charges: he must understand their peculiarities 
and be thoroughly alive to their every need, both 
immediate and prospective. The mere fact of 
having bees in the garden is not to be taken as 
an augury of honey in the cupboard, for in some 
seasons the production of honey. calls for skill 
on the part of the bee-keeper of no mean order. 
1 could take as an instance the season just past, 
when probably not more than one-third of the 
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