160 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



or failure as a beekeeper ? 

 13. In either case, why? 

 j^If_ B.— The first man interviewed is 

 a bee lover; has kept bees 35 years and 

 is well informed. He has at present 37 

 colonies of bees. This year he took 

 off 2700 pounds of section honey from 

 30 colonies, spring count. He is a 

 small farmer, and lives on a lO-acre 

 farm at the edge of a small town. He 

 took up beekeeping as a boy because 

 of an accident that lamed him. One 

 year he took off 8000 pounds of comb 

 honey from 32 colonies. Some years 

 he got only 300 pounds from 30 colo- 

 nies. He would advise all farmers to 

 keep a few colonies, but thinks only 

 the specialist can make money with 

 bees. He has no disease and few 

 moths; attributes success or failure to 

 get honey to the food supply of the 

 bees. , ,. , ^ ... 



Mr. X. is a specialist, and did not like 





The Flouus I.N A I iXRALiA Come Down 



IN A Night and Seldom Extend 



Over Two Days 



to talk. He has about 200 colonies, 

 but would give no figures. His honey 

 is on sale in a number of the neighbor- 

 ing towns. He says that any one who 

 attends to the business will have suc- 

 cess. Does not advise farmers to keep 



bees. . , J ■ 



Mr. C. H. was crippled by an acci- 

 cident 15 years ago; was set up in the 

 bee business by his employer, and did 

 well for a few years, but did not like 

 bees. The moth killed most of his 

 colonies; has only five colonies today. 



ome years he never put on supers or 

 removed those already on. Beekeeping 

 is a failure and the man a fool who 

 tries it. In this case the hives were in 

 a thicket of plum bushes, and had not 

 been touched for three years. 



Mr. G. lives in town, and has 10 colo- 

 nies ; keeps this number and sells the 

 excess swarms; has never had any 

 trouble. He advises all to keep a few 

 colonies; claims a good honey flow 

 each season. 

 Mr. C. C. was a common type of the 



fall of 1916, and was the most enthusi- 

 astic bee-man found. Had one hive. 

 Had taken off 30 pounds of honey, and 

 knew the A B C book by heart. Had 

 already figured out what he would do 

 with 50 colonies of bees. 



Mr. G. W. is the old style bee-man 

 of the timber. His pastime is hunting 

 bee trees. Has caught all his swarms 

 or reared them from wild swarms. He 

 uses gums and the old box-hives. Has 

 had no moth or disease that he knows 

 of. Mice have bothered him. Has 10 

 hives, and got 18 or 20 gallons of 

 honey this year. He advises all to 

 keep bees. 



Mr. M. F. R. has no bees at present, 

 but knows all about them. He bought 

 his colonies at a public sale because 

 the auctioneer was eloquent and the 

 bees cheap; paid 75 cents a colony for 

 12 colonies, and $85 for supplies; lost 

 every new swarm. The bees started a 

 runaway that caused a loss of $65. That 

 fall he took off 125 pounds of honey. 

 The next summer he had similar luck. 

 The third spring he had only four 

 colonies that were alive. The hogs got 

 into the orchard and upset the hives. 



Mr. M. purchased two stands in new 

 hives with supers from a bee firm two 

 years ago. He placed all the supers on 

 the hives and nailed them there. Has 

 never looked into the hives since that 

 time. He is waiting for the colonies 

 to become strong before taking the 

 honey; expects to take off a large 

 amount next year. If a bee has plenty 

 of room it will not swarm and continue 

 to deposit honey. The easiest way to 

 keep bees is to give them lots of supers 

 and every two or three years take off 

 the honey. 



Mr. Mc, living on the next farm, 

 showed me a very fine swarm that 

 came from one of the above mentioned 

 hives in less than a month after Mr. M. 

 placed them in his orchard. This col- 

 ony gave Mr. Mc 30 pounds the first 

 year and 70 pounds the last year. This 

 man is a very successful beekeeping 

 farmer. He has 15 colonies. 



One hundred cases we either inter- 

 viewed or heard of on good authority. 

 Of that 100, 80 p;rcent failed through 

 absolute ignorance. Of these 80, 20 

 began keeping bees without any knowl- 

 edge except that they made honey, and 



ended in two or three years with the 

 knowledge that bees neither make 

 honey nor pay. One claimed that the 

 birds caught all his bees. Seventeen 

 allowed their hives to be washed away 

 by high water, or burned by fire set out 

 to clean the orchard of weeds, or de- 

 stroyed by live stock. Two claimed 

 that moth killed out their bees. Five 

 lost part by swarming and sold the 

 rest to " git rid of the pesky critters. 

 Fourteen came into possession of bees 

 through purchase of farms on which 

 the bees were, or through inheritance. 

 Each made the attempt but failed, and 

 now have no bees or only a few strag- 

 gling colonies, because, to use the ex- 

 pression of one of the parties, he didn't 

 "jest git the hang of it." 



The remaining 20 cases were mostly 

 boys or women who started beekeeping 

 because some one else did or they were 

 in hopes of becoming suddenly rich, just 

 like the lady in the story paper. Most 

 of these discontinued the first year. 

 One persisted four years. All of these 

 were pure cases of failure because they 

 knew nothing about bees. 



Of the 20 percent, one-half may be 

 considered successful. Eight of the 

 ten so considered themselves. Two of 

 those thought the most successful by 

 their neighbors, did not believe them- 

 selves as such, as the sale of honey and 

 excess of swarms did not equal the 

 expense through a period of years. 



Of the remaining ten, five are too 

 new to mention, but the owners are 

 well informed and hope to succeed. 

 Three are keeping bees for fun. They 

 take up every new fad and get few re- 

 sults. Two were very indefinite in their 

 reports except that they considered 

 themselves successful. 



Now for some explanations and ob- 

 servations. Any one who has attempted 

 to keep bees has been considered a 

 beekeeper except where bees have been 

 taken from cut bee-trees and taken 

 home just to see if they would live 

 through the winter. There seems to 

 be a popular notion that bees hiber- 

 nate, and if the winter is mild they will 

 live through. Fifteen such swarms are 

 being watched. Of the 15, one was 

 taken from a cut bee-tree where it had 

 been abandoned by the cutter, by a 

 good beekeeper and is being fed. 



A WASHOUT IN AUSTRALIA-AUSTRALIA ALPS IN THE DI^STANCE^ 



