3*4 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
be lost. If many colonies are kept, a competent person 
should always be on hand, in the height of the season, to 
attend to the bees. Even the Sabbath cannot be observed 
as a day of rest; as the bee-keeper is often compelled to 
spend it in hard work among his bees. Although it is as 
proper for him to hive his bees on that day, as it is to take 
care of his other stock, still, the liability to such labor de¬ 
ters many from Apiarian pursuits. 
Many merchants, mechanics, and professional men, vv ho 
wish to keep bees, cannot superintend them during the 
swarming-season ; and are thus often kept from a pursuit 
intensely fascinating to an inquiring mind.* No man who 
spends some of his leisure in studying the wonderful in¬ 
stincts of bees, will ever complain that lie can find nothing 
to fill up his time, out of the range of his business or the 
gratification of his appetites. Bees may be kept with 
great advantage, even in large cities, and those who are 
debarred from rural pursuits may still listen to their sooth¬ 
ing hum, and harvest annually tlicir delicious nectar. 
If the Apiarian could always be at home during the 
swarming-season, it would still be oftentimes very incon¬ 
venient for him to attend to his bees. The farmer, for 
instance, may be interrupted in the business of hay-mak¬ 
ing, by the cry that his bees are swarming; and by the 
time he has hived them, perhaps a shower comes up, and 
his hay is injured more than the swarm is worth. Thus, 
the keeping of a few bees, instead of being a source of 
profit, may prove an expensive luxury; while in a largo 
Apiary, the embarrassments are often seriously increased. 
If, after a succession of days unfavorable for swarming, 
the weather becomes pleasant, it often happens that 
* “Bee-life,” says Prof. Slebold, “does not merely serve to furnish man vritb 
wax, honey, and mead, but constitutes an extremely Important link in the grcai 
and most multifariously-composed chain of animal existence.” 
