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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



After having filled our coffers with filthy 

 lucre through the industry of the busy bees, 

 let us turn our attention to ways and means 

 to sjjcnd some of it, — lest the burden of 

 wealth become so oppressive that we can't 

 sleep nights for thinking that some dyna- 

 miter may be tunneling under our plethoric 

 vaults. 



As one way to accomplish the desired re- 

 sult I would suggest that we spend the win- 

 ter in California. A little recreation in that 

 sunny clime shooting jack-rabbits, hunting 

 bears and bathing in the surf of the placid 

 Pacific — meanwhile boarding at the best 

 hotels, we might forget our cares and dis- 

 tribute oiir surplus at the same time. And 

 for a change we might rusticate in Florida, 

 catching alligators, eating oranges and sym- 

 pathizing with the poor bankers of the 

 North who cannot afford these luxuries. 

 Some who have no taste for travel might get 

 elected to Congress, take rooms in the fash- 

 ionable quarter of the city and entertain the 

 representatives of European courts. As 

 there are too many of us for all to go to 

 Congress, a few could be spared to run the 

 State Legislatures. These hardly ever hold 

 after the first of April, so we could get 

 home in time to get the bees out for peach 

 bloom. 



This idea of running a "sugar bush" in 

 spring, or a sorghum evaporator in the fall 

 may do for persons less favorably employed 

 than bee-keepers; but all of these humble 

 avocations, while they are good enough for 

 people who have not the capacity for higher 

 things, are too pi'osy for our brotherhood. 

 So you need not waste any ink discussing 

 what bee-keepers shall do with bee-keeping, 

 but rather open for discussion the topic: 

 "How shall we get rid of our surplus?" 



FoKEST City, Iowa, Nov. 21, 1889. 



Make Bee-Keeping Less Risky by Selling 

 Bees and Queens as well as Honey.— Sell- 

 ing Diaries and Sharpening Shears. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



fEEAD the November number of the 

 Review with gi-eat interest, and fully 

 agree with the conclusion arrived at, 

 that there is more money in bee-keeping 

 for the specialist than there is for the man 

 who conducts some other business with bee- 

 keeping. But there is one thing which I see 

 has taken firm hold of most of those writing, 

 and that is, that in order to be a specialist in 

 anything, the person so working must work 

 only along one certain portion of that pur- 

 suit. For instance: the person who is to be 

 a specialist at farming must make the rais- 

 ing of hay, or the raising of corn, or the 

 raising of wheat a specialty, if he would be 

 successful, according to the teaching of the 

 last Review, while I believe that nearly all 

 of our farmers practice what is termed 

 "mixed farming," and succeed faii-ly well at 

 the business. Thus we find our farmers 

 here in "York State," no matter whether 

 the farm contains 20 acres or 200 acres of 

 and, raising wheat, oats, barley, flax, beans 



and corn in the shape of grains ; keeping 

 sheep, cows, hoises, hogs, chickens and tur- 

 keys in tiie shape of stoc'i ; raising apples, 

 pears, small fruits and potatoes on the same 

 place, besides all the garden stuff required 

 by the family. Talk to tliem about raising 

 potatoes as a specialty, as does Terry of 

 Ohio, and they will point to such and such 

 ones who tried it and sunk their farms and 

 all they had, and tell you that they "want 

 none of that on their plates," preferring to 

 have something to fall back on should one 

 special crop fail. 



Now I am one of those who look at bee- 

 keeping in the same light that our farmers 

 look at farming. I believe in making bee- 

 keeping a specialty in just the same way our 

 farmers make farming a specialty. I believe 

 the wise apiarist will work his apiary to a 

 profit by selling bees, queens, comb honey, 

 extracted honey and beeswax from it. Now, 

 I know whereof I speak, for I have sold as 

 high as !{;200 worth of bees out of my apiary 

 certain springs, and, not being able to till all 

 orders from my own yard, bought all one or 

 two of my neighbors could si)are beside. 

 Taking six years on an average, I have sold 

 $500 worth of queens each year from the 

 same apiary atter selling bees as above. 

 Then I have sold as high as $2,000 worth of 

 comb honey from the apiary in a single year, 

 but not in the years that the bees and queens 

 were sold, although in some of the years I 

 sold several hundred dollars worth of comb 

 honey. Then I have sold considerable ex- 

 tracted honey from my apiary, and should 

 have raised more had I not found that it did 

 not sell as readily as comb honey in the 

 cities where I sent the comb honey. As to 

 the wax, there is always a good demand for 

 all any one can save, and were I to go into 

 another experiment (I may do this some 

 time) it would be to see whether an apiary 

 could be made to pay run wholly for wax 

 production. 



Now, Mr. Editor, in answering your ques- 

 tion, "What business will best combine with 

 bee-keeping, and what shall bee-keepers do 

 wintersV" I should say follow mixed bee- 

 keeping as I have given above, and the per- 

 son who does it will find nearly all of his 

 time occupied with profit except, perhaps, 

 the month of December, the last half of 

 November, and the first half of .January, for, 

 as the "Rambler" says "this would keep the 

 apiarist busy all winter in preparing for the 

 next season," by way of making shipping 

 boxes, queen cages, sections, etc., etc.; es- 

 pecially if he peddles his honey as the "Ram- 

 bler" does, which peddling is as profitable 

 to the bee-keeper as any work he can do, 

 providing he has any gift along this line. 



If you had only asked what any jwrson 

 could "do winters" to make it profitable, I 

 should have waited in e;igtrness to see the 

 answers to that question, for what you say, 

 "During the winter there is practically but 

 little to be done in the apiary," applies with 

 equal force to all places in the country. 

 For this reason we find tlie country stores 

 and taverns filled with idlers nearly all 

 winter, who have nothing to do but to sit 

 around and tell and listen to idle gossip and 

 stories. Is not "making supplies" at the 



