October, 1915. 



-^^a^=^ 



American Hee Journal 



it depends on your personal attend- 

 ance. 



At the evening meetings there will 

 be lectures on live subjects by some of 

 the best beekeepers in the country, 

 and you cannot afford to miss them. 

 Committee on Proc.r.\m. 



J. Vandervort Mr. Vandervort may 



not be known by reputation to all our 

 readers. He is the artist and mechanic 

 who first manufactured comb founda- 

 tion mills of varied fineness to make 

 the different grades of foundation. 

 His were the first machines to se- 

 secure a base thin enough and a side 

 wall light enough to avoid the "fish- 

 bone " obstacle in foundation for sec- 

 tions. He is a most disinterested man 

 who worked for the love of success 

 rather than for profit. Having heard 

 of his being laid up with rheumatism 

 we wrote him to renew old time ac- 

 quaintance and asked him for his pho- 

 tograph. 



In reply we received the following 

 letter: 



Laceyville, Pa,, Aug. 20, 1915. 

 Mr. C. p. Dadant, Hamilton, 111. 



J/v Dear Iriend: — Your very wel- 

 come letter was received. I am send- 

 ing a photograph taken by one of the 

 children in the yard. I do not think it 

 will be any thing you can use. 



I have been confined to my home for 

 the past four years. I am unable to 

 walk at all without the use of two 

 crutches. I am in my 8-lth year now, 

 so I cannot expect to appear very 

 young. 



It would give me great pleasure to 

 meet you and yours once more. 



Yours truly, J. Vandervort. 



Laceyville, Pa. 



Dr. Miller comments as follows: 

 "Very interesting it is to look again 



upon the face of my old friend, J. Van- 

 dervort. Long ago he ran a machine 

 shop in Marengo. That was very early 

 in my beekeeping career; indeed, be- 

 fore I had learned the size of a Lang- 

 stroth frame. 1 had, to be sure, begun 

 to use movable frames, but they were a 

 sort of nondescript in size, deeper, and 

 I think shorter, than the Langstroth. 

 Then when he left Marengo I bought 

 what hives he had on hand, some 20 if 

 I remember correctly. Instead of the 

 frames being ITSsxA's, the regular 

 Langstroth size, they were ^g of an 

 inch longer and Js shallower. I don't 

 know why that was, unless because 

 18x9 appealed to Mr. Vandervort's me- 

 chanical eye as being more regular. 

 Being made by so fine a mechanic, of 

 course those hives were a fine speci- 

 men of workmanship. Neither of us 

 at that time had any thought that he 

 would come into such prominence as 



a maker of foundation machines. Here 

 are my most cordial greetings, old 

 comrade." c. c. m. 



Obituary— C. F. Greening.— We have 

 recently been apprised of the death of 

 one of the pioneers of beekeeping, C. 

 F. Greening, of Grand Meadow, Minn. 

 He was born in Worcester, England, 

 in 1845, and came to America with his 

 parents two years later, settling in Wis- 

 consin. He fought in the Civil War, 

 going to Minnesota soon afterwards. 

 He made his home in Grand Meadow 

 until his death, which occurred on July 

 1, 1915. He was founder and president 

 of the Exchange State Bank of that 

 city. He had always taken an active 

 interest in beekeeping, and was the 

 originator of the successful non- 

 swarming method given by him in our 

 columns, page 310 of September, 1914. 



Bee-Keeping ^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson. Mareneo. III. 



J. VANDERVORT 



Beekeeping for Beginners What is the 

 Profit ? 



Inquiry comes as to the possibilities 

 of beekeeping for a young couple 

 with a great longing for country life. 

 As usual, the question of profit is in- 

 volved, as also the amount of capital 

 needed in the business, the number of 

 bees that can be kept on an acre, etc. 

 Such inquiries are constantly arising, 

 and it is a pleasure to reply thereto. 



As to the profit, exact figures can be 

 given of a net return of $40 from a sin- 

 gle colony of bees. Names can also be 

 given of women who have cared for 

 100 colonies or more, without calling 

 in the aid of the masculine partner. A 

 very little calculation will show that a 

 a profit of $40 per colony the net in- 

 come from 100 colonies is the neat lit- 

 tle sum of $4000. As the capital in- 

 vested for 100 colonies need not be 

 more than $1000, this is rather an at- 

 tractive proposition for the honey ob- 

 tained. But there is money also to be 

 made from the sale of bees. Affidavits 

 can be produced to show that a single 

 colony has been increased to ten in a 

 season. Let us be conservative, and 

 call it three. That would make the 

 number at the close of the second sea- 

 son 9 ; 3d season, 27; 4th season, 81; 

 oth season, 243 ; 6th season, 729 ; 7th 

 season, 2187; 8th season, tJ561; 9th sea- 

 son, 19,683; 10th season, 59.049. 



At this point it might be well to sell 

 out and retire from business, for at 

 $5 00 per colony the outfit would bring 

 $295,245. 



All this looks very pretty on paper, 

 but it never existed except on paper. 

 The number of those who have suc- 

 ceeded in owning as many as a thou- 



sand colonies is very small indeed. 

 Although $40 and more has been 

 achieved as the net returns from a sin- 

 gle colony, such a result is very excep- 

 tional indeed, and probably no one 

 ever succeeded so well with more than 

 one or two coloniesin an apiary of any 

 considerable size, and perhaps only 

 once in a lifetime. 



Dr. E. F. Phillips, in his book, "Bee- 

 keeping," estimates the average annual 

 crop of comb honey at 25 to 30 sec- 

 tions (each section weighing some- 

 thing like 14 ounces), and for extracted 

 honey perhaps 40 to 00 pounds. How 

 much money that would bring depends 

 upon circumstances. In some places 

 where prices are high and the retailing 

 is done by the beekeeper directly to the 

 consumer, the amount might be $10 or 

 more per colony. On the other hand 

 there are beekeepers who must sell at 

 wholesale, and at such prices that the 

 designated amount of honey would not 

 amount to more than $3.00 to $4.00. 



The question as to how many colo- 

 nies of bees can be kept on an acre of 

 ground is not to be answered in the 

 same way as would that question re- 

 garding other kinds of stock. If a 

 given number of sheep can be kept on 

 an acre of ground, then twice that 

 number can be kept on two acres, 

 whereas just as many bees can be kept 

 on one as on two acres. For that mat- 

 ter, a man or a woman with a good 

 sized garden plot can keep just as 

 many bees as the one with 500 acres. 

 For bees are fleet of wing, scouring 

 the field in all directions to a distance 

 of a mile and a half or more, and it 

 seems to make little difference to them 

 whether a certain honey plant be a 



