ILLINOIS STATE BEDE-KEEPERiS' ASSOCIATION 



149 



N. r>. West (New York) — Mr. 

 Coggshall's experience tells him that, 

 and the experience of a good many 

 others is about the same, only they 

 do not realize so much in the financial 

 line. 



Mr. Byard (Vermont) — I would say 

 that ibee-keeping' as a business, if 

 properly handled, will give a good re- 

 turn for the money invested, and I 

 think there is nobody, who will make 

 it a study, who need be afraid to go 

 into it; at least, that has been my 

 experience. I like outdoor life. I 

 have given up other things in place of 

 It, and I am very well satisfied. 



Mr. McLachlin (New York) — ^I have 

 t)een hoping to hear from some of 

 these men that keep five, six, seven 

 or eight hundred colonies; they don't 

 seem to speak. I have 140 colonies 

 this year, and I started with 80; I 

 have taken from that 80 a thousand 

 dollars worth of honey. I am running 

 for .business entirely now, having 

 learned how to do it, and with 140 

 colonies, with the same conditions 

 next year that we have had this year, 

 I expect to clean up $2,000. What 

 better business do you want? That is 

 comib honey entirely. 



W. L. Coggshall — He may expect it, 

 and he may be disappointed in a poor 

 year. 



Mr. McLachlin — When I came and 

 told my daughter I had a thousand 

 dollars worth of honey out of the 

 hives I thought she would faint; she 

 said, "I don't believe it." I said, 

 "You will see." My son came home 

 and said, "You are feeding your bees 

 out of season." That is another mis- 

 take. I commenced in season, and 1 

 disappointed my son, who is a bee- 

 man, and I think I disappointed our 

 inspector, Mr. Wright. He inspected 

 a hive up there, of black bees, and 

 advised me to re-queen and put in the 

 Italians. Thai same colony has put 

 nip 165 pounds of comb "honey this 

 •year. 



O. L. Hershiser (New York) — Every 

 time we have already good reason for 

 honey we get a good crop of bee- 

 keeping prop^hets. I wouldn't advise 

 people, generally, to place too much 

 stock on a real good honey-flow in 

 any special locality. I think we ought 

 to count on some of the failures. I 

 have seen good honey-flows and have 

 heen greatly encouraged, and some- 



times they have been followed by one 

 or two years of discouragements that 

 would "down" a good many people; 

 but I always remember the good sea- 

 sons are going to come by and by and 

 I keep preparing for them. A person 

 that has been at the business a good 

 many years knows that those things 

 come when the season is good, and 

 when the season is bad we have a lot 

 to overcome, and we have to have 

 courage to pass over them. 



L. C. Root (Connecticut) — That is 

 very wise advice that has just been 

 given. We had a long experience par- 

 ticularly in the supply business, and 

 that is one thing that it seems very 

 hard for a dealer to impress a pur- 

 chaser with, the fact that usually the 

 time beginners commence in the busi- 

 ness of bee-keeping is the very time 

 they should not commence. When 

 you have a very poor season naturally 

 the people that are thinking of going 

 into the business say, "I don't think I 

 would; it is risky business;" then 

 when you have one good season they 

 will say, "This looksi better;" and they 

 have another good business, and they 

 will say, "I begin to like this business, 

 and I am going into it." So this is 

 good advice that was given, and be- 

 ginners should be taught this lesson. 

 Of course the supply dealer has this 

 to say to them, "I am glad to sell you 

 bees just at this time, hut it is not 

 the time for you to buy." Particular- 

 ly do I say that when they are think- 

 ing of going into it largely. People 

 say they are tired of their business, 

 and they thought they would start 

 bee-keeping; they thought they would 

 start with 50 colonies. It is always 

 a mistake to do that. Some times 

 you find them so extremely ignorant 

 in regard to the requirements. For 

 instance, think of this: a New York- 

 er one time wrote to us when I was 

 in company with M. Quinby, that he 

 was tired of his business; he thought 

 he would go to the country and buy 

 a little place and begin keeping bees, 

 and asked what we would charge him 

 for a pair to begin with! (Laughter.) 

 He told me he was going out of the 

 mercantile business. I told him I was 

 tired of the bee-business, and thought 

 I would embark in the mercantile 

 business, and if he would write and 

 tell me how to embark successfully in 

 the mercantile business I would tell 



