FKI'.'U' \H\ 1. lOlf) 



out a [>iu:iiisiiii; boy about 17 years old 

 whom I thought 1 could make an apiarist. 

 During his services with me I schooled 

 him in bee culture, and the next season I 

 l)ut him on as a regular helper. But I 

 needed more raw help, and so 1 advertised 

 for it in a farm pajjer. 1 had my pick of a 

 lot of applications as a result, and took the 

 farmer boys who had never known any 

 thing about city life, jobs, or public work, 

 but had always been right on the farm with 

 their parents. Out of the best of these, 

 from time to time 1 have made apiarists and 

 good reliable helpers in the business. 1 have 

 found such help by far the best and most 

 reliable. Later I tried considerable expe- 

 rienced help which never resulted satisfac- 

 torily. So I abandoned it entirely, and 

 settled doAvn to hire raw help and give it 

 my own training. The best way 1 have 

 found to handle reliable experienced helpers 

 is to let them operate bees on shares, allow- 

 ing them one-half for the other, except in- 

 crease, which I hold. This allows them a 

 chance to make more than they could in 

 working for wages only. Where such an 

 apiarist is competent a number of apiaries 

 are turned over to him to operate, and he 

 hires such help as he needs; but over aU 

 these must be a general overseer whose duty 

 it is to see that the bees nowhere lack atten- 

 tion. 



K'KTUKNS. 



i have never put one cent in bees that 

 they did not make under my care. The fact 

 i.s, I never had it, and I was $227 in debt 

 when I stai'ted beekeeping. This debt ] had 

 contracted three years previous, while in 

 scliool, and nothing fell to my lot in the way 

 of this world's goods; but I did plan for the 

 bees to pay their own way and helped them 

 do it. From the very first colony the bees 

 paid their own accounts; but there was not 

 much expense about the first 100 colonies, 

 as their supplies were crude, and only lum- 

 ber from the trash-piles of lumber-yards 

 was used in making the hives. 



I managed to live, and not draw any 

 money out of the bees' treasury for outside 

 liurposes — that is, for any thing except for 

 the bees, until I had over 300 colonies. Of 

 course this gave them a good start, and ever 

 since then I have drawn on the bees for all 

 expenses; and, later, from time to time I 

 have drawn on them for capital to make 

 outside investments to the amount of over 

 $10,000, and my net income from my entire 

 bee business is over $4000 annually. All 

 accounts against the business are settled 

 when the returns are in at the end of each 

 season. 



Cordele, Ga. 



WHAT FIVE DECADES HAVE TAUGHT ME 



BY J. E. CRANE 



As I look back over the years, it seems a 

 long time since I first began beekeeping, for 

 it is now just forty-nine years ago this 

 month since I bought my first colony. It 

 was a small colony of Italian bees, about 

 half full of combs, for which I agreed to 

 pay $25.00. A little later my brother bought 

 another, and we went into company in the 

 bee business. By the last of March we had 

 bought two more colonies of black bees in 

 i)ox hives. 



These I thought I couM readily transfer 

 into movable-frame hives which we had 

 made for this purpose. I had read all about 

 how to do it by driving the bees out first. 

 and embraced the earliest opportunity to do 

 so while tlie weather was yet cold. Alas! 

 the bees did not drive worth a cent; and I 

 found after drumming for an hour or more 

 that they refused to go up into the hive or 

 box on top of the hive as 1 was told they 

 would. In fact, the writei^s I had consulted 

 had failed to state that driving bees out of 

 tlieir hive should be done in summer instead 

 of during cold weather. How often writers 



fail to mention some little matter that is 

 essential to success, and then wonder that 

 others do not succeed as well as they do ! 



Later we succeeded in transferring, and 

 on the 4th of July looked up the queens of 

 those black colonies, and soon introduced 

 Italian queens in their places; but the sea- 

 son went by without a single new swarm or 

 a pound of surplus honey. We increased 

 our stock, however, by buying other colonies, 

 and b.y the next spring we had ten or twelve 

 hives of bees — not very strong but healthy. 

 The season was good, and we made some 

 increase and secured about 100 lbs. of sur- 

 l)lus honey to the colony. 



Duiing the previous winter I had made 

 glass boxes enough when filled to weigh 

 r)00 pounds. My fathei- told me T had 

 made up enough boxes to last ten years; 

 but when he found we did not have half 

 enough for the first season he changed his 

 mind and thought he would like .'^ome Ital- 

 ian bees, and offered $75 for the colony 1 

 first bought and its increase, and $50 more 

 for the lioney they had made. I did not 



