ed in milk, a
few chicken's groats being added, and the yolks of eggs boiled hard.
After being kept warm under the coop with the mother for five or six
days, they may then be turned a little in the sun, towards the middle of
the day, and fed with boiled barley mixed with curds, and a few
pot-herbs chopped up. At the end of a fortnight, they may be left
entirely to the care of the mother, who will be sure to perform her
duty.

Such are the principal particulars regarding the keeping of fowls. There
are many books written on the subject: one of the best of them is called
the "Poultry-yard," which may be consulted for further information.

PART X.

BEES.

[Illustration]

Any humane person must be unwilling to keep what may be termed "pets,"
when, as is very often the case, they are taken from the freedom which
nature has given them, to be pent up in cages, hutches, and round-about
boxes. It is not a part of good moral training to encourage children to
deprive anything of liberty, and the keeping of rabbits, guinea-pigs,
birds, gold and silver fish, white mice, pigeons and squirrels, is not
only attended with a vast deal of trouble and expense, but with a great
many bad smells, filth, and dirt. Such matters, have, therefore, been
excluded from this volume, as being by no means calculated to improve
either the minds or morals of young persons, but rather to have a
contrary tendency.

These objections do not, however, lie against the keeping of _bees_,
which afford at all times lessons of industry, of order, of contrivance,
of perseverance, and of many other virtues, which are great ornaments to
little boys and girls, as well as to grown men and women. We shall,
therefore, give as copious an account of this interesting insect as we
can, and, at the same time, show the best methods of managing it with
advantage to its possessor.

Bee is the English name for an extensive _genera_ of insects,--_apis_ or
the section _anthophla_ or _mellifera_ of modern classification. The
common domestic bee, of which it is now our business to treat, is the
_apis mellifica_ of Linnaeus; and it may be as well to state, for the
guidance of the young reader, that the Hive-bee is distinguished from
all other species of bees,--by having the shanks of the hind legs
furnished with a smooth and concave pollen-plate on the outer surface,
and destitute of spines at the extremity,--by the basal joint of the
_torsi_ in the working bees, of