[ILLUSTRATIONS.]

Page.
Fig.1.A well-arranged apiary[7]
2.A ten-frame hive with comb honey super and perforated zinc queen excluder[10]
3.Smoker[11]
4.Bee veil with silk-tulle front[11]
5.Hive tools[12]
6.Drone and queen trap on hive entrance[12]
7.Bee escape for removing bees from supers[13]
8.Spring bee escape[13]
9.Bee brush[14]
10.Worker, queen, and drone[16]
11.Comb architecture[17]
12.Egg, larvæ, and pupa[18]
13.Queen cells[18]
14.Handling the frame: First position[21]
15.Handling the frame: Second position[21]
16.Handling the frame : Third position[22]
17.Division-board feeder to be hung in hive in place of frame[27]
18.Feeder set in collar under hive body[27]
19."Pepper-box" feeder for use on top of frames[28]
20.Pan in super arranged for feeding[28]
21.Knives for uncapping honey[34]
22.Honey extractor[35]
23.Perforated zinc queen excluder[38]
24.Shipping cases for comb honey[38]
25.Queen mailing cage[45]

[BEES.]

INTRODUCTION.

Beekeeping for pleasure and profit is carried on by many thousands of people in all parts of the United States. As a rule, it is not the sole occupation. There are, however, many places where an experienced bee keeper can make a good living by devoting his entire time and attention to this line of work. It is usually unwise to undertake extensive beekeeping without considerable previous experience on a small scale, since there are so many minor details which go to make up success in the work. It is a good plan to begin on a small scale, make the bees pay for themselves and for all additional apparatus, as well as some profit, and gradually to increase as far as the local conditions or the desires of the individual permit.

Bee culture is the means of obtaining for human use a natural product which is abundant in almost all parts of the country, and which would be lost to us were it not for the honey bee. The annual production of honey and wax in the United States makes apiculture a profitable minor industry of the country. From its very nature it can never become one of the leading agricultural pursuits, but that there is abundant opportunity for its growth can not be doubted. Not only is the honey bee valuable as a producer, but it is also one of the most beneficial of insects in cross-pollinating the flowers of various economic plants.

Beekeeping is also extremely fascinating to the majority of people as a pastime, furnishing outdoor exercise as well as intimacy with an insect whose activity has been a subject of absorbing study from the earliest times. It has the advantage of being a recreation which pays its own way and often produces no mean profit.

It is a mistake, however, to paint only the bright side of the picture and leave it to the new bee keeper to discover that there is often another side. Where any financial profit is derived, beekeeping requires hard work and work at just the proper time, otherwise the surplus of honey may be diminished or lost. Few lines of work require more study to insure success. In years when the available nectar is limited, surplus honey is secured only by judicious manipulations, and it is only through considerable experience and often by expensive reverses that the bee keeper is able to manipulate properly to save his crop. Anyone can produce honey in seasons of plenty, but these do not come every year in most locations, and it takes a good bee keeper to make the most of poor years. When, even with the best of manipulations, the crop is a failure through lack of nectar, the bees must be fed to keep them from starvation.