(ESTABLISHED 1888) 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE 

 NATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



Office OF Pu BLiCATiON ... 230 Woodlan d Aven ue 



VOL. XXV. DETROIT, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 1, 1912, No. 8. 



Importance of Specialization. 



M. V. FACEY. 



' "Jl X the August Review, ^Ir. Demuth takes exception to my say- 

 Tl ing that a certain bee-keeper with 300 colonies of bees en- 

 gaged in the honey business to his loss, with the remark that 

 this man had too little to do instead of too much. It seemed to 

 him that possibly my business as a dealer may have influenced my 

 point of view. 



If ^Iv. Demuth will take the trouble to look back over my writ- 

 ings he will find I have been more of a bee-keeper than a dealer, 

 handling from 500 to GOO colonies, besides extending repeated help 

 to my farmer friends. In doing this work I did all my work with- 

 out help at all times except during the surplus season, when I had 

 my extracting crews. 



Aly experience in the bee and honey line has been rather varied 

 and extensive. The result of experience has been to make a thor- 

 ough believer in specialization of me. The successful specialist in 

 bee-keeping is the result of education, experience and development. 

 Xo person can launch into bee-keeping as a specialist from the be- 

 ginning. He first has his small yard in connection with his farm. 

 his poultry or some other source of income, by which he can turn 

 his penny. In this way experience is gained, then more bees are 

 added, less work in other lines, then more bees and more bees until 

 all attention, all work, all thought and energy is concentrated upon 

 the bees. How many hees should the specialist keep? This will 

 depend upon the subject. One person may only succeed in handling 

 300 or possibly 400 colonies, another 500, another 600 or more,- but 



