WHY KEEP BEES 5 



would, from the first, make bee-keeping his chief 

 work should receive his training in a large apiary. 

 As a vocation it demands the entire time and energy 

 of a shrewd and able person to insure success; of 

 such, America already has a great number, with 

 yearly incomes varying from $1,000 to $10,000. 

 However, the desire to make the bees keep them- 

 selves and add more or less to the family income is a 

 practical and sensible reason for keeping bees. 

 Fifteen or twenty colonies may be managed with 

 comparatively little time and attention and the work 

 may be done largely by women or the younger mem- 

 bers of the household. If proper care be given to 

 such an apiary, it will prove of material benefit to the 

 family purse; for, if the season be favourable, the 

 product of one colony should net the owner from 

 four to ten dollars. We know of boys who have thus 

 earned their college expenses ; and many women have 

 bought immunity from the drudgery of the kitchen 

 with money paid them for their crops of honey. It 

 should be borne in mind that honey-money is not 

 obtained without thought, energy, and some hard 

 work. The bees would have been less beneficent 

 to mankind had they bestowed honey without de- 

 manding a return in care and labour. 



Many have kept bees as a recreation, and there is 

 none better. It gives delightful and absorbing oc- 

 cupation in the open air and is not merely a rest from 

 mental and sedentary labours, but is a stimulus to 

 health and strength as well. In the various bee 

 journals are recorded testimonials from thousands 



