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Florida Bugsgist 
Official Organ of the Florida Entomological Society 
VOL. I SPRING AND SUMMER NUMBERS VOL. II 
No. 4 MARCH 21 AND JUNE 22, 1918 INjo; 
Printed July, 1918. 
BEE KEEPING IN FLORIDA.* 
By FRANK STIRLING 
The keepers of bees in Florida find many reasons for engag- 
ing in this industry. Some engage in it solely for the honey pro- 
duced and the financial gains resulting therefrom, while others, 
in fact a large majority, are in the business for the love of it. 
For some it is a recreation, and there is none better, as it gives 
delightful and absorbing occupation in the open air, and those 
who love natural science find no more fascinating problems than 
the ones still unsolved in the hive. 
As a vocation it requires one’s whole time and energy in order 
to insure success. Florida already has a large number of per- 
sons engaged in the bee industry whose yearly incomes vary 
from $500 to $5000. You will find bee keepers located in most 
all sections of the State, but most of them are at points where 
_the pasturage for the bees is of the best; that is, where the 
plants grow which produce the most and best honey, such as 
the citrus grove sections on the east and west coasts, the swamps 
where great quantities of cabbage palmetto grow, and the north- 
western portions of the State where the tupelo and titi abound. 
Some bee keepers in Florida have several hundred colonies, but 
most of them keep only a few as a “side issue’. Fifteen or 
twenty colonies may be managed with comparatively little time 
and attention, and if proper care be given to such an apiary it 
will prove profitable. If the season is favorable the product of 
one colony should net the owner from $4.00 to $10.00. For 
example, three years ago, from a small apiary of thirty-two col- 
onies, the writer produced one ton of honey which sold at from 
ten to twenty-five cents per pound. It is not considered an 
exception for some colonies to produce as much as one hundred 
pounds of surplus honey during one year. 
*Paper read before the Florida Entomological Society. 
