With the view of making "The Humane Management of Honey-Bees" more interesting, the dialogue, which formed the introductory chapter in the first edition, has been withdrawn, and in its place have been substituted some valuable remarks of Dr. Birkbeck, Dr. Hancock, and Mr. Booth, respecting Bees, honey, wax, &c. of course _the first chapter is new_; as is chapter X. giving an account of the apiary of the Most Noble the Marquess of Blandford, at Delabere Park, which can hardly fail of being interesting to every reader: it is principally from the able pen of Mr. Booth. Chapter XVIII. on Apiarian Societies, is new also. And, besides these three entire chapters, not short paragraphs merely, but whole pages of new matter have been introduced interspersedly by my most respected friend--the Rev. T. Clark, of Gedney-Hill, who has revised, corrected, and re-arranged the whole; and who has not only bestowed much time and pains upon the improvement of my work, but in the kindest and most disinterested manner has, in superintending this and the former edition through the press, actually travelled upwards of _eight hundred_ miles. The friendly performer of services so generous, so laborious, and so perseveringly attended to, without any stipulation for fee or reward, merits from me, and has from me, every expression of my gratitude, and, were it in my power, should have _one expression more_.
II. _Bee-Boxes and Management of Bees in them_ 14
---- _Mode of Stocking an Observatory-Hive_ 119
IX. _Objections against Piling Boxes_ 135
The object of the generality of persons who keep Bees, is--profit: and that profit might be indefinitely augmented were Bees properly managed, and their lives preserved--were the still extensively-practised, cruel, and destructive system superseded by a conservative one. Some few there may be in the higher ranks of life, who cultivate bees from motives of curiosity--for the gratification of witnessing and examining the formation and progress of their ingenious and most beautiful works, and with a view to study the instinct, habits, propensities, peculiarities, or, in one word, the nature, of these wonderful, little insects, in order to improve their condition, and to gain additional knowledge respecting their natural history, hitherto, it must be confessed, enveloped in much uncertainty, and very imperfectly understood. To this class of Bee-masters and _Bee-friends_ the system of management to be explained in the following pages, will, it is hoped, unfold discoveries and impart facilities and improvements hitherto unknown in apiarian science. And they, whose sole object in keeping Bees is _profit_, may derive incalculable advantage from conforming to the mode of management, and strictly attending to the _practical directions_ hereinafter to be detailed: because as their profits are expected to arise principally from honey and wax, it evidently must be for their interest to know how to obtain those valuable Bee-productions in their purest state and in the greatest quantity. The quantity obtained in a good honey-year (viz. 1826) from a well-stocked and exceedingly prosperous colony--still in existence, and still flourishing, (i. e. in 1834) was so considerable, and so far beyond anything ever realized from a common straw-hive colony, that my statements respecting it have been doubted by some, and totally discredited by others, unacquainted with my (I trust I may say) _improved_ system of Bee-management. With respect to the purity of the honey taken according to my plan, and the general properties and medical virtues, and, of course, _value of honey when pure_, I have much pleasure in being enabled to submit to the reader the opinions of my scientific friends--Dr. Birkbeck, Mr. Abraham Booth, Lecturer on Chemistry, and Dr. Hancock; because their opinions may safely be considered as unimpeachable authority on this subject, viz. the uses and medical virtues of _pure honey_.