ON RATIONAL BEE-KEEPING. 
CHAPTER I. 
ON RATIONAL BEE-KEEPING. 
What is meant by rational bee-keeping ? 
Some people imagine that by this term the 
selection of one kind of hive is ' meant, to the 
exclusion of all others. This is not our idea of 
its meaning. 
According to us, rational bee-keeping means 
the culture of bees conducted with intelligence 
by employing all the simplest and easiest 
methods for obtaining the best supply of honey, 
having an eye, at the same time, to the preser- 
vation and increase of the colonies. 
No system of apiculture can be called rational 
which does not allow the bee-master to develop 
the knowledge he possesses, and to profit by 
that which he has acquired, in order to keep 
