JUNE 15, 1916 



473 



BEEKEEPING IN CALIFORNIA 



P. C. Chadwick, 



Thirty years ago today (May 22, 

 1916) I hived my first swarm of 

 bees and may be said to have en- 

 tered the bee business on that day, 

 for I have owned bees ever since. 

 One of the refieetions that came to 

 my mind in a most forceful man- 

 ner was this: " "What should be our attitude 

 toward the beginner?" As a matter of 

 justice and fairness toward the amateur 

 there are many things we might say to him 

 that would tend toward discouragement on 

 entering the bee business as an occupation. 

 From my own expei'ience and observation 

 I am ready to give some frank words to the 

 amateur. I do not believe there was ever a 

 more verdant youth than I at the beginning 

 of my beekeeping experience — that is, so far 

 as any knowledge of the bee was concerned. 

 I had sutBeient enthusiasm to keep pace 

 with any condition which might arise; but 

 the necessary knowledge was lacking. If, 

 instead of my uncle having given me a lot 

 of second-hand hives, with a little encour- 

 agement, he had advised me to get rid of 

 those bees as quickly as possible, and avoid 

 the fever for all time, I should have been 

 financially better off at the end of the first 

 eighteen years. It is not my wish to say 

 that I could not have made a success of the 

 bee business in those years had I had expe- 

 rience. I did not know how, and my time 

 was too much occupied with fruit and 

 potato growing to give the bees the required 

 care. Then, too, I was trying to raise comb 

 honey every year, regardless of the season, 

 with the result that my loss in sections was 

 very heavy, and my output of nice comb 

 honey very small. 



Those conditions iirevailed until my bees 

 were becoming less and less in numbers, the 

 other farmwork having divided my time in 

 such a manner that the bees wei'e the last 

 to receive attention. It was a dead loss to 

 me, and I thought many times I would give 

 the bees up entirely. But that old feeling 

 of love of nature would assert itself, and 

 I could not resist the fascination of the 

 bees. Now, here is one of the points I wish 

 to make clear. The amateur with the love 

 of nature in his heart, and the bee a part 

 of this devotion to nature, will succeed 

 when the amateur who goes into the busi- 

 ness simply as a business asset will fail. 

 It takes a lot of courage to face a series of 

 poor years (and consequently small crops), 

 and the fellow who enjoys the business will 

 hold on when the one who looks only for 

 money will quit. 



As a matter of fact I am thoroly of the 



Redlands, Cal. 



opinion that at least 90 per cent of all those 

 who have entered the bee business more or 

 less extensively have failed, and the greater 

 per cent of those remaining have made little 

 more than the amount actually invested. 

 The fact that I with manv others had failed 

 in my early efforts to make a financial suc- 

 cess of the business does not prove that all 

 was lost. The knowledge of the bees is 

 worth a consideration as a part of one's 

 education, and may in after-years be utiliz- 

 ed when circumstances have placed both 

 opportunity and necessity in one's path. I 

 have come under this same chain of circum- 

 stances, in that I have for the past twelve 

 years found it both desii'able and profitable 

 as well as a source of supreme pleasure, to 

 continue the business. The bee business, in 

 order to support a family in the proper 

 manner, must be carried on in an extensive 

 way or the jDrofits from the good years will 

 not make up for the deficits of the poor 

 ones. So the amateur who has visions of 

 extensive operations and a large bank ac- 

 count must first take into consideration that 

 all is not a bed of roses, .and that the dark 

 days must be lighted with the sunshine of 

 the bright days in the form of surplus 

 funds saved from the good years. It would 

 pay any Eastern beekeeper to spend a year 

 in the West Avith some of the big honey- 

 producers, learning the business. That may 

 sound a bit like a " slam " at the Eastern 

 beekeeper, but it is not intended as such. 

 The fact remains, however, that the ideas of 

 the Western beekeepers are so much bigger 

 and broader that one learns by leaps and 

 bounds when under the influence of the 

 Western spirit. I could return to the East 

 now and make dollars where I was not able 

 to make cents when I came here — not be- 

 cause I had not studied all of the technical 

 terms in beedom, and knew all of the fun- 

 damental workings of the bee, but because I 

 have learned better than to try to compel 

 bees to put up nice comb honey when the 

 flow is not sufficient to accomplish the ob- 

 ject, when the efforts of the bee could have 

 been turned into a commercial value by 

 having extracting-combs to hold their labors 

 during the slow flow. 



The amateur should be given as many of 

 the facts in connection with the ups and 

 downs of the business as possible; then if 

 he wishes to try his skill in the business he 

 does so at his own peril. But the brightest 

 side should appear only with the dark side, 

 for they will both have to be faced sooner 

 or later, and their early acquaintance will 

 make tlie way less fearful in the end. 



