130 THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 



Management of Three Thousand Colonies Bees in 



Fifty Yards 



J. J. WILDER, Cordele, Ga. 



It is not such a hard matter to work up to a well planned bus- 

 iness ahead as it is to plan and work along together. Right here 

 is where success or failure lies, but I know that our greatest pro- 

 moters or writers advocate this way of procedure. That is, just 

 try it and see how you will succeed, but the way to succeed is to plan 

 well on ahead and work up to the plans and this means something 

 definite to plan to, that is a stake set up at the other end or high- 

 est point of the venture; then with this in view plan and work 

 and not grope along in darkness. I know that a man not so well 

 experienced will get side-tracked a little, but he is quick to discover 

 it and is rather profited by it in the long run. 



With all the turning points and the limit of my bee business 

 clearly in my mind, the task has not been as great for me as one 

 might think. Mr. Hutchinson once said that it was folly for a 

 man who could plan well to do the work, too, but just stand by, 

 study and offer suggestions and see that it was done right. This 

 is true when a business is well under way, but until then the pro- 

 prietor better work and think, too. At first his services, as a rule, 

 have to be divided between his bee business and some other man's 

 business and in this way he is almost on double duty all the time. 

 Also Mr. Hutchinson said that "More Bees" were better for a 

 beekeeper than to mix up with some other line of business. This 

 is a wise thing to do, but it is limited to the man who can do it, 

 time and means permitting, but void of means an energetic man 

 must bring his other business props into play and do this until 

 he well knows he has passed over the danger line of his bee bus- 

 iness, and if he was to drop the other line too soon he would nat- 

 urally have drawn too heavily on his weak business and thereby 

 crippled it, when he would become discouraged and perhaps aban- 

 don it entirely. I could have safely dropped the "prop" at the 

 200 colony mark and I believe any beekeeper could and solely 

 depend on returns from them for all the common necessities of 

 life, but this number is right at the bottom of the limit, for no 

 outside investments could be made and possibly in many cases 

 economy would have to be practiced more than it should until the 

 number of colonies was raised. Then if a large bee business was in 

 view the returns would be drawn on too heavily until it would be 

 years before the limit would be reached. 



