Bee-keeping made easy
KEYS, John. The Practical Bee-Master. In which will be shewn how to manage bees either in straw hives or in boxes, without destroying them, and with more ease, safety and profit, than by any method hitherto made public. Printed for the Author, and sold by him at his House in Cheshunt-Street, Hertfordshire. [1780]
8vo. Contemporary half calf, marbled boards, spine with gilt raised bands and gilt red morocco lettering piece; pp. xii + 390 + [2, errata and postcript], 1 folding plate; some scuffing to extremities, hinges tender, very good.
First edition. This classic work aimed to make bee-keeping easy for the ordinary cottage dweller at a time when apiarism was still a neglected branch of rural economy. Although this work was sold from his house in Hertfordshire, Keys was a Welsh bee-keeper who gained his experience primarily in Pembroke.
Harding 135.
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