164 



GLEANINGS INBEE CULTURE 



October, 1917 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



Conversations with Doolittle 



" I have kept a few hives of bees for two 

 seasons, and the past summer gave me good 

 results, therefore I am hooking forward to 

 the time when I can depend upon the bees 

 for our living. Do you think it will be 

 safe for me to enter this business as a pro- 

 fession, and depend upon beekeeping for 

 a livelihood of myself and family?" 



This is a question I have often been ask- 

 ed, and perhaps it is well to look the matter 

 over more carefully than has generally been 

 done. With a man or woman adapted to 

 the business, a suitable locality, and the 

 adoption of sound business methods, apicul- 

 ture Avill compare favorably with other 

 rural pursuits. However, I wish to say 

 there is no other branch of agriculture so 

 apt to mislead a beginner, and inflate him 

 with the belief that a fortune for him is 

 just ahead as that of beekeeping. He is 

 apt to figaire from results that have been 

 secured on a small scale, and argue that all 

 he has to do in order to bring about the 

 same results on a larger scale is to increase 

 the business. Sooner or later he strikes an 

 adverse season, and, lo ! his bubble has 

 burst, and he begins to realize some of the 

 uncertainties. Then he may go to the other 

 extreme of discouragement, and dispose of 

 his few remaining colonies for about the 

 original cost of the bare hives. If he does 

 this, such action proves conclusively that 

 he is not adapted to the business. If he 

 were adapt-ed to it, he would take care of 

 his hives and combs — do the best possible, 

 and wait for better conditions. Other 

 branches of agriculture are subject to fail- 

 ures. The farmer is never certain of a 

 crop when he puts the seed in the ground, 

 but on the whole his occupation is as certain 

 to bring results as any other, and more so 

 than many. So it is with beekeeping. We 

 can form a correct estimate of the relative 

 .value of the industry, as compared with 

 others, only by taking a number of years 

 together. 



I believe it is well understood that bee- 

 keeping is not an occupation in which we 

 can easily become immensely wealthy. In 

 the very nature of things it could not be 

 so. Like the keeping of poultry, the rais- 

 ing of small fruits, gardening, and other 

 minor brandies of agriculture, the keeping 

 of bees in localities adapted to the busi- 

 ness can be depended upon to furnish tlie 

 owner a comfortable living; but such for- 

 tunes as are amassed by the railroad king, 

 the coal baron, or the Standard Oil Com- 



pany, can never be hoped for by the bee- 

 keeper. Fortunately, however, the perfec- 

 tion of a man's happiness bears but little 

 relation to the size of his fortune. Many 

 a man with the hum of bees over his head 

 finds happiness sweeter and deeper than 

 ever comes to these amassers of wealth 

 from others' labors. 



Apiculture is an ennobling pursuit. It 

 brings out the best there is in a man, and 

 it keeps him close to nature. But can it 

 be depended upon for a term of years as a 

 means of supporting the family? In some 

 localities it can ; in others it can not. 

 Where there is only an unreliable source of 

 honey, no man can depend upon bees alone. 

 In case we wish toi adopt beekeeping as a 

 profession, a location must be chosen pos- 

 sessing at least one unfailing source of 

 honey, or else several sources, some one or 

 more of which will most surely furnish a 

 crop. Location is a great factor ; but man- 

 agement and a thoro knowledge of our loca- 

 tion is the most important of all. It will not 

 do to be like a beekeeper I once visited who 

 v/as so ignorant of his location, and so negli- 

 gent of the wants of his colonies, that he told 

 me that he expected the bees to do well when 

 the basswood came into bloom, whereas 

 basswood had come and gone ; and the ener- 

 getic bees, having had no surplus arrange- 

 ment provided in which to store the honey, 

 had just filled their brood-combs all that 

 they could, and then loafed the time away, 

 or else had built comb under the hive-stands. 

 With a good knowledge regarding all of 

 the minor resources of his field, and with a 

 management which would leave no stone un- 

 turned to meet the basswood bloom, and 

 with everything in readiness at the opening 

 of the first blossoms, doubtless an average 

 yield of 100 lbs. of comb honey, or 150 of 

 extracted, could have been secured from 

 each old colony in the spring. 



Many who attempt beekeeping as a 

 specialty are lacking in business methods. 

 They attempt too many make-shifts by way 

 of experiments with hives, implements, and 

 Die like. Very few enter the ranks of api- 

 culture witliout really thinking and believ- 

 ing that they can invent a better hive, or 

 something pertaining to bee culture, that 

 is superior to tliat whicli has been used by 

 tliose who have gone before. I know there 

 is a certain fascination and enjoyment in 

 this; but the best success is sure to come by 

 taking the things which the most success- 

 ful apiai'ists use and adojiting them. 



Enough bees should be kept so that, when 



