THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



197 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Can Women Keep Bees with Profit ? 



To the inquiry I niiglit simplj^ answer 

 yes, decidedly, and append my signature. 

 But I presume you wanted more— a little 

 experience. Not having kept a journal, I 

 cannot be very definite. After three years 

 of loss and mishaps as amateur and bejiin- 

 ner, in which the profit and loss about 

 balanced, I began in 1875 with ten stocks, 

 in the old American hive, none of them full. 

 All were hybrid bees. I had some natural 

 swarms, but generally prevented such. I 

 lost three swarms which went to the woods, 

 and closed the season with four strong 

 stocks, with plenty of winter stores and 

 something over 2,200 lbs. ot honey, all of 

 which, except what the family used, was 

 sold at 16 to 25 cts. per ft, most of it at 20c. 

 All the bees, up to March, were in line con- 

 dition; all were heavy and breeding finely. 

 It being cold and windy, they were replaced 

 in the cellar from which they had been re- 

 moved; very warm spring weather follow- 

 ed. Illness prevented proper attention, and 

 all but 16 young swarms fretted to death. 



Sickness and death in the family pre- 

 vented much attention to the bees, but in 

 autumn I had again 40 stocks, but only 

 about 1,300 lbs. of honey. Honey sold for 

 16 to 25c., and two stocks for $520. At pres- 

 ent all the stocks are doing well. I now 

 use the double American hive, with some of 

 my own improvements. 



1 have given my bees very imperfect at- 

 tention, yet for every dollar spent I have 

 received at least five. I feel sure I can do 

 much better. It is a healthful, interesting, 

 and proHtable pursuit. The lack of a suit- 

 able market is the only risky feature in 

 bee-keeping. Mrs. M. A. Bills. 



For tiie American Bee Journal. 



Dollar Queens ! 



Can a bee-keeper get a living by produc- 

 ing good, unwarranted queens for one dol- 

 lar ? Yes ! and we will prove it. With 50 

 good colonies of bees in movable frames 

 and 12 colonies in box hives, without assis- 

 tance, we can rear, in 60 days, 500 good 

 queens, and wind up in Sept. or Oct. with 

 as many colonies, in movable-frame hives, 

 as we started with, and, if in a good honey 

 season, with a considerable surplus of 

 honey. 



Coming from as noted a breeder and ship- 

 per of Italian queens as Ch. Dadant, the 

 article from his pen on page 164, May num- 

 ber of A. B. J., is calculated to mislead the 

 uninformed in the mysteries of queen rear- 

 ing and goes far to create the impression 

 that cheap-queen breeders are unreliable; 

 that desirable queens cannot be produced 

 for $1; that 50 good colonies of bees are 

 destroyed in their production; that after 

 expenses of advertisements, stamps, cages, 

 mailing, etc., less than $200, with no bees 

 are left the breeder, which as a matter of 

 course is a losing business, and those who 

 engage in it are not long in finding it out 

 and leave the business to others, after a 

 short trial. 



Now all this is mere assertion and to the 

 uninformed Mr. D's figures look very 

 plausible, but are not correct. Nothing 

 wrong, but lie does not tell all. 



No doubt Mr. D. gives the price of labor 

 and queens correctly in Italy, but that has 

 nothing to do with colonies and queens in 

 the U. S. We do not wish any assistance, 

 no matter how cheap, in the queen rearing 

 business, and as to the price of bees the 

 native brown can be purchased in any sea- 

 son in log and box gums at from $2, to $2.50 

 each, strong in bees and from 25 to 30 lbs. of 

 honey per gum. We know of two parties 

 who have for years sold hrst swarms, con- 

 taining from 8 to 10 quarts of bees and a 

 queen, for one dollar — the party purchasing 

 furnisliing empty hive. These bees are 

 just as profitable to the buyer as if he paid 

 $10 for them. The price did not make them 

 less valuable, and $1 queens, although not 

 so profitable to the producer are none the 

 less so to the purchaser. 



If Mr. D. does not expose these $1 queens 

 for business sake, pray tell us why he un- 

 dertakes to expose them ? Is it for the 

 good of the bee business and fraternity? 

 No ! Do we hnd the question answered in 

 the very next sentence m his article? "We 

 have resolved not to sell a home-bred 

 queen this season." We cannot ship from 

 Italy, pay carriage an:l duty, and sell at $1. 

 Mr. D. lias heretofore tried to impress, in 

 journalistic articles.that on account of some 

 climatic influence, the absence of the brown 

 bee in Italy, or something else, that as pure 

 bees cannot be produced in the U. S. as in 

 Italy. 



Now, Mr. Editor, friend D. is too intelli- 

 gent a bee-keeper to take such a position. 

 You are aware the African from the shores 

 of Ethiopia has become no whiter and his 

 hair no straighter, through generations of 

 residence on the sugar, cotton, and rice 

 plantations of the Gulf States. The Asiatic 

 breeds of poultry have not deteriorated one 

 iota by removal from the pent-up yards of 

 the Orientals. The merino produces as fine 

 a fleece and is as much at home in the Cen- 

 tral basin of Tennessee as on their native 

 hills. 



But for the figures in this queen business. 

 Although we can purchase at less figures, 

 let us take from Mrs. Adam Grimm, whose 

 advertisement we see in the Joukxal, 50 

 colonies of pure Italians at $6.5o, $325; pur- 

 chase 200 nucleus hives to contain 3 frames, 

 same size as above, $100 (and they can be 

 had for less money); 400 extra frames at oc, 

 $20; 12 colonies of brown bees in box hives 

 at $2 each, $24; and we have an outlay to 

 commence queen rearing of $469. 



On April 15th we will remove the queens 

 from 20 of the strongest colonies, as we have 

 plenty of drones and drone brood. On 

 April 25th, we will break up these colonies 

 into nuclei, making an average of 6 nuclei 

 to the hive, to contain from 1 to 2 pints of 

 bees. This will give 120 nuclei. We will 

 break up the 12 colonies of brown bees into 

 nuclei, making 72, which added to those in 

 the frame hives gives us 192 nuclei. The 20 

 colonies broken up contained 200 frames of 

 honey and brood, and of the 12 colonies of 

 brown bees, we transferred brood and 

 honey into 120 frames, which gives us 320 

 frames ouly, to go into 200 nuclei. We 

 want 80 additit)nal frames of comb, as oiu" 

 nuclei is to have only two full frames, 

 which we get from the remaining 30 colon- 

 ies, and iu their place give empty frames. 

 Each 200 nuclei now has 2 frames of comb 

 and brood, a queen cell, and, as before 

 stated, from 1 to 2 pints of bees. Some will 



