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tamed , still baffle tlie efforts of man to put it into com- 
plete subjection ? There have been many systems of 
bee culture, and innumerable “patent hives,” invented 
to effect this, but none of them has attained to perfec- 
tion. The system explained in this little work, does 
not, however, claim absolute perfection, but it does 
claim to be an improvement that ranks higher than any- 
thing which has been heretofore attempted. 
We would say in the first place, that to be successful 
in bee culture we must be able to carry over from one 
year to the other the work our bee does, together with 
the bees, without unnecessary loss. To do this we must 
know something of the nature and habit of the bees. 
If we have a proper hive we may do this, and the Mc- 
Donald Hive is just what the common bee master wants. 
1st. — It is simple in its construction and costs no more 
than a hive should cost to put bees in. Every bee master 
should have some little pride about what he puts his 
bees in when they will pay him well for all the money 
and labor he bestows on them. It has been said that 
there is no excellence without great labor but there 
may be great profit with but very little labor, it it is 
done understandingly in bee culture. Wc say there is 
some things that a man must know of the habits of bees 
if he makes the culture profitable ; and there are a few 
things that he must do and they must be done in time, 
and at the time. The common method of colonizing 
bees is attended with much uncertainty and danger ot 
loss to the bee raiser. Sometimes a colony will stay 
with the old hive two weeks longer than it should in 
the very best time for gathering honey, it then comes off 
and you put it in an empty hive ; if the I’cmaining sea- 
son should prove unfavorable, it will die during the 
next winter ; another one will come off and go to the 
woods and it is lost, and then the old colony will 
throw off some times as many as five colonies and they 
are not worth having, and while the old hive is weak 
from over-swarminc, the miller takes advantage and 
destroys them. So you can see you must govern 
your bees or there is no success. Now if you will take 
