If no other books on bees were available, the subjects covered in this book might be discussed more fully and in detail. My purpose, however, is not to provide a manual of beekeeping practice but to call attention to things which most beekeepers already know but do not use to the best advantage.

Therefore, I have placed emphasis on six essential factors in profitable honey getting. These are adequate colony population which includes standard honeystoring strength and good combs; location of apiaries in areas having adequate nectar production; prompt starting of work in supers at the beginning of the honeyflow; uninterrupted continuation of work in the supers; continuous replacement of bees that die; and colony condition at the end of the season so that it can store a good crop of honey the next year.

I have discussed eight essentials of practice which, if full use is made of them, will produce and maintain in operation the six factors.

These essential practices are, in reality, contained in the main theme of this book which is the use of the clear brood nest.

The necessity of having a clear brood nest for the use of the queen is self evident and no one can doubt its importance; yet it is not a simple thing to provide. To secure and keep a clear brood nest it is necessary to make use of young vigorous queens, to control their movements, to use bee labor instead of man labor by keeping all colonies uniform in strength and queen-right, to eradicate American foulbrood, to control swarming, and to keep the bees good tempered.

If the reader will continually retain in his mind this one thought of having a clear brood nest in each colony he will find his road to successful honey getting made much smoother.

Because the clear brood nest method may be used with various systems of apiary management, I have discussed three good clear brood nest systems and several variations of them, together with the use of the clear brood nest with the shallow food chamber and in the production of bulk comb and section comb honey.

Because the queen is the heart of the colony, I have closed the book with a short discussion of selective breeding, requeening and making increase.

For further study by the reader, he is reminded that many states distribute free information on beekeeping, usually obtainable from the State Agricultural College or Extension Service. Also United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, Beltsville, Maryland, has a list of good books and bulletins about beekeeping which may be obtained upon application.