16 THE BUSINESS OF BEE-KEEPING 



hundred dollars' worth of honey, which quite probably was equal 

 to his salary. Should he decide to devote all his time to the bees, 

 lie can care for double his present number. While this was an 

 unusually favorable season, with double the number of colonies, 

 his average production will leave little risk to run. 



A General Farmer.— One of the most successful bee-keepers 

 of the Middle West is a young man who abandoned general farm- 

 ing because the heavy expenses necessary to pay cash rent, hired 

 help, buy expensive machinery, and replace the worn-out horses 

 made it difficult to get ahead. This man does nearly all his own 

 work, thus keeping down expenses. He produces from twenty- 

 five thousand to forty thousand pounds of honey per year, which 

 he sells to jobbers at wholesale prices. By developing a retail 

 market he could increase his income materially, though it is good 

 at present. 



Many Others. — It w^ould bo possible to multipy these exam- 

 ples indefinitely, but these men who have turned to bee-keeping 

 from so many different walks of life should be sufficient. It 

 would be possible to cite also numberless examples of those, wdio, 

 by plunging without experience, have failed, but most of the 

 failures have been because the adventurer did not use good 

 business judgment. 



As an Exclusive Business. — The men who are engaged in 

 honey production as an exclusive business are getting results 

 equal to those derived from other lines of agriculture, with, less 

 capital invested and with less risk. The fact that the business 

 is open to men of small capital, who are unable to engage in 

 general farming because of the larger outlay required, surely 

 makes it desirable to encourage the development of the industry 

 as far as possible. Bee-keeping, as a business, requires high- 

 grade talent, and comparatively few men succeed in making it 

 profitable as an exclusive line. This is not the fault of the busi- 

 ness but of the men. It looks so easy that men are not willing to 

 serve an apprenticeship, or to take the necessary time to master 

 the business in all its details, as they would expect to do in other 

 lines. 



