62 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



One reason why a good many 

 who have started in beekeeping 

 have failed was because of over- 

 stocking. If one hundred colonies 

 are placed in a location where 

 there is but forage enough to sup- 

 port properly twenty-five or fifty 

 colonies, one will not have long to 

 wait to know that beekeeping in 

 such a place cannot be made a 

 success. From twenty-five to fifty 

 colonies of bees will do well five 

 seasons out of six in most any 

 country town in Nevv England. 

 I refer to a location where there is 

 no basswood forage, and where the 

 bees depend largely on fruit blos- 

 soms and white clover and have a 

 fair chance to forage on late fall 

 flowers. Well, now if twenty-five 

 colonies do well, do not increase 

 the apiary to fifty or more colonies 

 at one jump. If twenty-five or 

 thirty colonies have done extra 

 well for three years in succession, 

 the apiary may safely be increased 

 to fifty colonies. Then wait two 

 years, and if the fifty colonies seem 

 to store large amounts of surplus 

 honey, the apiary can be further 

 increased. Do not attempt to 

 make beekeeping a special busi- 

 ness unless your apiary is situated 

 where basswood and white clover 

 are very abundant. 



PLANTING FOK HONEY. 



The statements made in the Api 

 of the new honey plants by Mr. 

 Tyrrel and others iiave satisfied me 

 that it will pay to {)lant for hone^'. 

 If a plant can be found that will 

 produce hone}' of a good quality in 

 a wet season, and one on wliich 

 bees will work while the weather 

 is such thtit white clover and otlier 

 bloom yield no honey, then the 

 beekeeper has nothing to fear so 

 far as a lioney dearth is concerned. 

 All who keep bees are not so situ- 

 ated that they can plant for honey, 

 yet in most country places there 

 is plenty of waste land that may 



be secured at a low price and on 

 which one may plant and utilize 

 for the use of his apiary ; therefore 

 we sa}', plant for hone}^, it will pay. 



HOME MARKET. 



The small beekeeper, and those 

 who have other business besides 

 keeping bees are not prepared to 

 ship their honey to distant cities 

 for a market in order to find a ready 

 sale for the products of their apia- 

 ries. It does not require very ex- 

 tensive or expensive advertising to 

 develop a home market. Place the 

 price of your honey at such a low 

 figure that everyone can afford to 

 purchase it. Let the people who 

 think they can go out of town and 

 get better honey b}^ paying higher 

 prices go and do it. Have a good 

 quality of hone^' where all who 

 desire can taste it, and nine out of 

 every ten persons who do so will 

 purchase more or less for their 

 families. If j'^ou have a poor qual- 

 ity of honey, be honest and tell 

 each purchaser that yon liave honey 

 but that the qualit}' is not as good 

 as it is some seasons. As to wiiich 

 Is the best and most profitable to 

 raise, comb or extracted hone^', 

 each one must decide that matter 

 for himself. Tl)e demand in any 

 particular locality will be the best 

 criterion to go b3^ 



Do not tell your townspeople that 

 3'our bees have "made" a big lot 

 of honey. One need not give him- 

 self or his business away to his 

 neighbors. A man who kept bees 

 in VVenhain, some twenty years ago, 

 was so well pleased with his suc- 

 cess one season that he told his 

 neiglibors all about it. The man 

 who kept the bees had but one acre 

 of land, and those who owned more 

 or less in the same town accused the 

 beekeeper of robbing them. They 

 said his bees must have got all the 

 honey away from home and in less 

 than two years he was driven bees 

 and all, from town. ' Tis a danger- 



