THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



181 



discourage it. Nevertheless, conducted on 

 business principles, I believe that bee-keep- 

 ing as an exclusive business, offei's a fair 

 investment for capital; and I say this not- 

 withstanding my very unfortunate venture 

 in this line the past season. Last spring, 

 expecting, as most of us did, because we 

 had had two unfavorable seasons in succes- 

 sion, that this would be a bonanza, I made a 

 contract "with a gentleman owning about 'IM 

 stocks of bees in Ohio, to manage them 

 without increase for half of the honey, he 

 furnishing all supplies. The result was that 

 I worked six months, doing three times as 

 much as would have been necessary with 

 tirst class arrangements, fur almost notliimj. 

 I simply took my chances in a lottery and 

 drew a blank. That isn't business. To 

 make an exclusive business of bees, my 

 experience leads me to believe that a man 

 should have a cai)ital sufficient to begin with 

 at least 300 stocks, all in good hives, with all 

 the necessary supplies, and then in addition 

 a reserve sufficient to support himself for at 

 least two years, and to feed the bees ^1 per 

 stock per season for the same time, without 

 any return. I pre-suppose, of course, that 

 the man understands the business practi- 

 cally before he begins as a specialist. 



What income ought one reasonably to ex- 

 pect from this outlay V According to my 

 experience, one year with another, 800 stocks 

 of bees well managed in any ordinary local- 

 ity would average a net income of ij^'JOO per 

 year in honey, and an increase of 100 stocks. 

 This is as good as one could expect from a 

 farm costing three times as much and run 

 for general farming. It would be better 

 than the same amount invested in almost 

 any kind of merchandising or any ordinary 

 manufacturing. It is a business which a 

 man can increase up to 5,000 or 6,000 stocks 

 as fast as he can tind efficient and faithful 

 help, and still be able to give sufficiently 

 close personal supervision to secure as large 

 returns per colony as with the 300 with 

 which he started. ( )f course there will be 

 years when the returns will be 0, or worse, 

 instead of the above average; but there will 

 be as many other years in the long run, 

 when he will get f 9 or iJilO per stock. 



Until very recently, I doubt if there was 

 anyone in the country who understood the 

 wintering problem sufficiently to warrant 

 him in making bees a specialty, as it would 

 be simply foolhardiness to invest money in 

 bees when the risk of losing the whole capi- 

 tal by their dying in winter, was added to 

 the risk of poor honey harvests; but at pres- 

 ent I believe the principles of successful 

 wintering are as well understood as of win- 

 tering any other stock. Thick packing on 

 summer stands, or massed together so as to 

 keep each other warm; or a cellar or other 

 repository where the temperature icill never 

 go below 4(P and not unreasonably high, will 

 always bring them through, if they have 

 honey enough to live on, and this I say 

 although believing fully in the "pollen the- 

 ory." 



While I believe in these possibilities for 

 the specialist,- I take particular delight in 

 seeing a few colonies standing in the yard of 

 an intelligent farmer, mechanic or profes- 



sional man. Such a man, or his wife, if 

 posted, can do all that is necessary with all 

 the bees that should be kept in one locality, 

 to get all the honey possible without inter- 

 fering with their other business. But some 

 of the specialists will say, "yes, but none 

 but specialists will ever get sufficiently posted 

 to do much with bees." I have thought so 

 too, but, if I didn't make anything by my 

 sojourn in Ohio this season, I learned a 

 lesson or two. While our 2.')0 stocks of bees, 

 standing in one yard, an arrangement, 

 which, by the way, I didn't approve, but 

 which I couldn't change, were doing very 

 little, some farmers' wives five or six miles 

 distant, keepingj;en or twelve stocks apiece, 

 were selling more honey than we did from 

 our 250. I met some of them and found 

 them as well posted in the essentials of man- 

 agement as any one I know. They pick up 

 what they know by taking some one of the 

 excellent bee journals now published. But 

 a specialist says that such people are always 

 a damage to the bee business because they 

 are not sufficiently interested to keep track 

 of the markets, and they break down the 

 markets by selling for the first thing offered 

 them. To such I answer that I have seen a 

 honey market this season worked up by such 

 mixed bee-keepers, which to me was perfeet- 

 ly wonderful. In the East, in and around 

 New York, there is no demand for honey 

 befoi-e cold weather; but at Lima, Ohio, 

 there is a great strife among the local bee- 

 keepers to see who first can get new honey 

 into market; as the one who first supplies a 

 grocer can probably hold his trade till all 

 his honey is sold. About the first of .lune 

 the grocers began to "hunt" us for honey, 

 and they kept it up till we had to "dodge" 

 them as badly as if we owed them a bill, and 

 when they found they really couldn't get 

 anything from us, they began to import 

 honey from New York, paying IGc. when 

 they paid but 8c. for good butter. Such a 

 market the smaller producers can work up 

 anywhere, and then let the specialists send 

 their crops to the large cities, after seeing 

 that the local markets are fully supplied, 

 and the two classes will never come into 

 collision. There is room and a place for 

 both. 

 Shelby, Ohio, Oct. 29, 1889. 



Conventions Strengthen, Brighten and Rest 

 Us, and Improve Our Literature. — Ad- 

 vantages of "Mixed" Bee-Keeping. 



PKOF. A. J. OOOK, 



EAR MR. EDITOR:— I have no ques- 

 J tion but that our conventions serve 

 '^^ an admirable purpose. I should be 

 inclined to this opinion, even could I 

 see no explanation. The men of all crafts 

 and professions, especially those of highest 

 intelligence and enterprise, have their asso- 

 ciations. Such men act not from impulse; 

 nor do they give their time and money for 

 the fun of the thing. It pays and they 

 know it. 



