412 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



We have been requested to make this article supplement 

 somewhat the excellent paper, " Bee keeping, its pleasures 

 and profits," by Prof. James B. Paige.* In order that we 

 may enjoy the " pleasures and profits ".of bee keeping, it is 

 certainly needful that we be armed and equipped to meet 

 the difiiculties and prevent the losses which sometimes 

 tlireaten the industry. 



With a capital value in 1900 of $10,186,000 for the 

 United States as a whole, the bees returned, as profits and 

 wages, products to the amount of 16,665,000. This is 

 about ()5 per cent interest on the investment, and returns 

 of 100 to 200 per cent are sometimes realized in special 

 cases of g-ood manao-ement and favorable conditions. The 

 large returns indicate that bee keeping is an industry which 

 liberally rewards intelligent effort, and there is no agricul- 

 tural pursuit in which accuracy and the determination to do 

 everything required at exactly the right time count for so 

 much. No similar industry yields such large rewards, and 

 no occupation is more exacting in the matter of promptness 

 when anything needs to be done. Unless we are sure of 

 being able to do each part of the work at the proper season , 

 we should not attempt bee keeping. 



Wintering Bees. 

 Of all the dangers and difficulties confronting the bee 

 keeper, that of wintering his bees in this latitude and climate, 

 with its sudden changes, was brought most closely home to 

 many this past winter (1903-04) .f Some lost every swarm, 

 others 80 per cent. The man who successfully brought 

 through to spring 50 per cent or more of his colonies is in- 

 deed to be congratulated. But the extreme and prolonged 

 cold was not the chief cause of this excessive loss. Bees have 

 been known to winter safely under all manner of conditions : 

 in stone jars ; thin wooden shipping boxes, both shallow and 

 deep ; in glass hives ; and even in hives with no bottom to 

 prevent the wind from sweeping up between the combs. 



* Massachusetts Crop Report, July, 1903 ; also Agriculture of Massachusetts, 

 1903, pp. 399-411. 

 t The loss was apparently as great m the winter of 1901-05. 



