300 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 45 



As yet, growers of such crops as onion, carrot, and legume seed 

 have not realized the necessity of inducing beekeepers to place colonies 

 close to such fields. Beekeepers receive no compensation for the 

 pollinating work which their bees do. The sale of honey, therefore, 

 carries the whole burden of keeping bees available for pollination. 

 The time is probably not far distant when wise men will see the neces- 

 sity of stabilizing and improving the honey market or else work out 

 an equitable means of compensating the beekeeper for his contribution 

 to crop production. 



With the realization that many branches of agriculture cannot sur- 

 vive without the cooperation of a widely scattered and healthy bee- 

 keeping industry, more and more persons are becoming interested in 

 trying their hand with bees. A few words of advice may not be amiss. 



There is already a big brotherhood of beekeepers. The exact num- 

 ber of persons keeping bees in the United States is not known, but it 

 is estimated to be in excess of 500,000. Of these, probably less than 

 5,000 depend on beekeeping as a principal means of livelihood. Five 

 hundred colonies are considered to constitute a full-time job, while 

 the largest operators will manage up to 10,000 colonies. The other 

 operators are amateurs, back-lot beekeepers, and many who are in 

 beekeeping as a part-time job, keeping from 50 to several hundred 

 colonies. The production from the 5,460,000 colonies kept in the 

 United States in 1945 was in excess of 225 million pounds of honey. 



Almost every State has an active beekeepers' association, and in 

 many places the beekeepers are organized on a county basis. In addi- 

 tion there are numerous bee clubs of one kind or another. A wide- 

 awake group of city beekeepers meets monthly in the heart of New 

 York City. A beginner will find many kindred spirits and persons 

 with whom to compare notes. 



To be successful with bees one must like to work with them; capital 

 alone is not sufficient to insure a successful business. Partnerships 

 in which one party furnishes the capital and the other the knowledge 

 are rarely successful in beekeeping. It is mostly a one-man business. 



A successful beekeeper is a person to be envied. At all times he is 

 his own boss. During the summer months he works as hard as any- 

 body, but after the harvest he can relax. Even during the height of 

 the active season a good operator can take a few days off to attend 

 a beekeepers' meeting or engage in a fishing expedition. The bees 

 do not require the daily attention that other types of livestock demand. 



In a good season a well-managed colony should produce close to 

 100 pounds of honey. Under expert management and in a good 

 honey-producing locality, several hundred pounds per colony are 

 often harvested. At the same time and place, but poorly managed, 

 a colony may not obtain enough honey to carry it through the winter. 



