August, 1916. 



273 



American Tine Journal 



^^(^^p^ 



How much did your apiary cost you ? 

 If you have purchased two or three 

 hives of bees and have made your in- 

 crease from these, the apiary has cost 

 you the value of the material, hives, 

 etc., and the labor spent by you in pro- 

 ducing the increase. While you have 

 produced increase from your bees, you 

 have secured but little honey, for inten- 

 sive increase of colonies is always done 

 at the expense of surplus crop. How- 

 ever, it should not be difficult to figure 

 what your colonies have cost you, if 

 you take all these matters in consid- 

 eration. 



After your apiary is established, the 

 cost of honey will be represented by 

 the interest on the amount invested 

 in bees, the depreciation, the rental of 

 the ground, the interest and wear and 

 tear on the building which is usually 

 very insignificant and, above all, the 

 labor. What your time is worth should 

 determine the cost of production. 



If you are in a good honey-produc- 

 ing region, where crops are almost 

 uniform, the result will prove profitable. 

 As you must take the average of one 

 season with another, in order to figure 

 costs, the less crops you have the 

 greater the cost of production. If you 

 are trying to keep bees for a living, 

 you must therefore locate in a favor- 

 able spot. 



If beekeeping is for you a side issue 

 and you give to them only your spare 

 moments, you can afford to charge to 

 this business a lower price per hour 

 or per day than you would otherwise, 

 for the moments thus employed would 

 be otherwise lost as far as profits are 

 concerned, and perhaps the healthful- 

 ness of beekeeping is a benefit to you, 

 especially if you are a person of seden- 

 tary occupations otherwise. 



The number of colonies you keep in 

 each apiary will have much to do with 

 the question of profits. If you have 

 only 50 colonies in an apiary that could 

 yield as much per colony if there were 

 double that number, you will be at a 

 disadvantage, since you could probably 

 look after a greater number at each 

 trip or at each visit. 



Your method of beekeeping will have 

 much to do with costs. Numerous ma- 

 nipulations must be followed by greater 

 advantages in results or the labor eats 

 up the profits. As a rule, the simpler 

 methods are the more profitable. But 

 a well selected breed of honey pro- 

 ducers, convenient implements, and 

 well made uniform hives are requisites 

 sine qua non. 



The difference in cost between comb 

 and extracted honey will be found im- 

 portant. The amount of labor required, 

 the amount of swarming caused and 

 the cost of equipment have co be taken 

 in consideration. The sections and 

 foundation used in the production <<f 

 comb honey must be reckoned, since 

 they are each year to be replaced, while 

 the combs supplied to the colonies run 

 for extracted honey are retained from 

 year to year and are part ot the capital 

 on which only interest rates and sink- 

 ing fund are figured. 



The cost ot running an apiary in a 

 season of heavy crop is greater than 

 that of a minimum crop, for in the latter 

 case the number of manipulations is 

 reduced. But in a very unfavorable 

 season, when bees have to be fed at 

 different times, not only must we add 



the cost of the food given, but we will 

 find our labor considerably increased 

 over that of the indifferent season. 



The last thing for us to do in figur- 

 ing costs is to take the average of a 

 number of seasons. Good bookkeep- 

 ing is required. But the beekeeper is 

 often like the average farmer. Bee- 

 keeping and bookkeeping are not often 

 found together. Yet as the cultivation 

 of bees is becoming rapidly a specialized 

 pursuit, bookkeeping in beekeeping 

 will be oftener connected in the future. 



Painting Foundation 

 Melted Wax 



With 



BY J. E. HAND. 



ON page 164, is an interesting article 

 on painting foundation with melted 

 wax. In my opinion, the efficacy 

 of this method hinges on several con- 

 tingencies: First, will it supersede wir- 

 ing ? Second, is foundation heavier 

 than light brood advisable ? Third, is it 

 advisable to have more wax in section 

 foundation than is contained in the 

 thin grade? Since these questions 

 cannot well be answered in the affirma- 

 tive, it would seem that painting foun- 

 dation is of doubtful expediency, but 

 there are two more witnesses to be 

 examined. 1. Do bees accept painted 

 foundation enough more readily to pay 

 for painting ? I have a suspicion that 

 this question will be answered by some 

 in the affirmative, but with a strong 

 force of bees and a good flow of nec- 

 tar, involuntary wax secretion will be- 



gin and abundance of natural wax pro- 

 vided, which would not be utilized with 

 painted foundation ; therefore, it is not 

 yet clear that painting is profitable. 



But there is still another witness to 

 be heard from, "Is wax secretion a 

 voluntary function, or is it an involun- 

 tary process ? In my opinion, based 

 on many years of observation, wax 

 secretion is an involuntary process 

 oyer which bees have no control. 

 Under certain conditions bees cannot 

 keep from secreting wax, and the con- 

 ditions are: First, a moderate harvest 

 when considerable nectar is digested 

 to make honey, second, any contin- 

 gency that would cause bees to retain 

 honey in the sac or stomach for a con- 

 siderable time, as in shipping long dis- 

 tances under stress of excitement. 

 Molding wax into comb is evidently 

 an innate voluntary habit, but I cannot 

 conceive of a condition under which 

 bees voluntarily secrete wax. It is, 

 therefore, apparent that considerable 

 wax is wasted when extracted honey is 

 produced with drawn combs. If these 

 deductions are correct, I prefer to sell 

 my surplus wax, and get a lot more by 

 having a few combs drawn in every 

 extracting super, they cost nothing, 

 and are valuable assets, like money in 

 the bank. Personally, I regard wax as 

 an article of commerce just the same 

 as honey, therefore, am loth to waste 

 it unnecessarily. 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



[It is not at all apparent to us that 

 wax is wasted when extracting combs 

 are supplied in the supers. There are 



THE DESERT FLORA IS PROFUSE IN COLORADO NEAR THE FOOTHILLS 



