GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



other work ; and nearly every one can keep 

 a few colonies in his back yard. Ten or 

 twenty colonies will yield almost a certain 

 return — a much larger revenue, per colony, 

 than ten times that number." 



With the knowledge that from ten to 

 twenty colonies can usually be handled suc- 

 cessfully, and at a good profit, the beginner 

 will naturally desire to try his hand at it. 

 How shall he make his start? Whenever 

 possible, buy bees in your own vicinity. 

 Regarding the price, a strong colony of 

 Italian bees, with tested queen, in a new 

 Dovetailed hive, or any modern hive, in 

 fact, might be worth $10.00. This ordina- 

 rily would be considered the outside price. 

 Ordinarily, bees that are hybrids or blacks, 

 in movable-frame hives, second-hand, sell 

 from $3.00 to $5.00 per stock, including the 

 hive. If there are no modern beekeepers in 

 the vicinity, one may have to purchase a 

 box hive or two with the combs all built 

 solid into the hive. The price of these, if 

 they are blacks and hybrids, generally is 

 from $1.00 to $3.00. So far as my knowl- 

 edge goes, there are not many bees in Okla- 

 homa of the kind and condition of these last 

 mentioned, and I hope there will never be 

 many. 



The same author just quoted has the fol- 

 lowing to say under profits of bees : " On 

 the average, perhaps, in the Northern 

 States, in what is known as the rain-belt, 

 one might expect to get anywhere from 25 

 to 50 lbs. of comb honey, and perhaps 25 

 to 50 per cent more of extracted. There 

 will be some seasons when he might secure 

 as much as 100 lbs. on an average, and oc- 

 casionally seasons when there would be 

 neither comb nor extracted, and the bees 

 would require to be fed. Taking one year 

 with another, a small beekeeper ought to 

 average about 35 lbs. of comb honey, on a 

 conservative estimate, providing he has rea- 

 sonable skill and love for the business." 



The author then makes an estimate of 

 the expenses, and places the net profit at 

 four to four and a half dollars per colony. 

 Continuing he says: 



" The question of whether one should 

 keep few or many bees will depend upon 

 many conditions; the principal one will be 

 the ability of the man. Many a person can 

 handle a few chickens, and get good results; 

 but when he runs the number into the hun- 

 dreds he meets with failure and disappoint- 

 ment. Some of our friends have done re- 

 markably well Avith a few colonies; bul 

 when they attempted to double or treble tl:e 

 number they entered into a business proiio- 

 sition that proved rather too much for them. 



" A good many, on account of a lack of 

 experience or of business ability, not under- 



standing their own limitations and those of 

 their localities, will plunge into beekeeping 

 top deeply and meet with disaster. There 

 are undoubtedly some people who can keep 

 more bees by scattering them in outyards, 

 and if they have the requisite training and 

 business ability they can make more money. 

 But where we find one person who can man- 

 age 500 colonies or more successfully, there 

 will be dozens of others who can not go be- 

 yond the 200 or 300 mark. The same rule 

 applies to any business." 



As for myself, I began beekeeping when 

 a mere boy, and have kept them as a side 

 line, while a farmer boy, schoolteacher, and 

 railway postal clerk. Their principal at- 

 traction for me seems to have been occa- 

 sioned by my becoming inoculated with the 

 germ of bee fever, which must have been 

 quite early, for my parents tell me that 

 when a mere infant I was found with a 

 stick poking into a hive, undoubtedly mak- 

 ing foul-brood inspection. As with many 

 others, my liking for the frisky little insect 

 is such that I would persist in keeping them 

 about me if their presence produced but 

 little or no honey for home use and the 

 market. It may be pure luck, but there has 

 never been a season when I had bees that 

 I did not secure enough surplus to pay in- 

 terest on the investment. 



Although I made an early beginning with 

 bee investigation, there were none for my 

 study when I became old enough to under- 

 stand them. AVhen T became old enough 

 to read understandingly I was fortunate in 

 securing through a friend some of the most 

 up-to-date books and periodicals on the 

 honeybee. Although I could not then re- 

 member ever having' seen a bee, the articles 

 so excited my interest that I was not long in 

 securing my first colony, since when I have 

 worked out my own course with the aid of 

 the ample literature that is now available, 

 and without the aid of any one who knew 

 more of the little creatures than I did to 

 give me personal instruction. 



My average in 1909 was 91 pounds, 

 spring count, and 95 pounds in 1910, and 

 doubled my stock in each case. This past 

 season the flow ended July 23. This seems 

 to be a good yield for the season ; but one 

 of my neighbors, a boy of 16, reports a 

 yield of something like 150 pounds per colo- 

 ny. 



The same season that I purchased my 

 first colony I found a bee-tree of black bees. 

 Tliis at once put me into active practice in 

 cutting the tree, transferring the comb, and 

 changing the black queen for an Italian. 

 My stock since then has steadily increased; 

 but I have never oAvned more than about 30 

 colonies at a time. Wliile employed as a 



