2 BULLETIN 489, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



value of hive products. The State ranks second in value of wax 

 produced. The value of bees per colony is reported at $2.04. Atten- 

 tion is called to the fact that these figures are not complete, as many of 

 the bees in the State are not on farms and many on farms evidently 

 were not reported. 



In brief, the survey fully verifies Prof. Franklin Sherman's 1 

 statement that " there is perhaps no other industry in the State of 

 equal importance, and with equal opportunities for development, 

 which is so disorganized, so disconnected, and suffering so badly from 

 lack of careful attention and better methods as is the beekeeping busi- 

 ness." 



No doubt bees have been in North Carolina for a long time, but 

 the business of beekeeping has received so little attention that, except 

 in a comparatively few cases, absolutely no advance has been made. 



PRESENT CONDITIONS. 



TYPES OF HIVES. 



Most of the colonies of bees in North Carolina are housed in hol- 

 low logs or " gums.'' Some are kept in upright box hives, " plank" 

 or " tall gums," and only a small percentage are in some type of 

 movable-frame hive, locally called " patent gums." The eastern and 

 western parts of the State have the largest percentage of bees in logs, 

 while through the central part the majority of the bees are in movable- 

 frame hives. This condition appears to be due partly to the fact that 

 the beekeepers are slow to adopt new methods, particularly as in some 

 cases movable-frame hives have been tried with poor results, owing to 

 lack of knowledge necessary to get good returns. Beekeeping as prac- 

 ticed by most of the beekeepers is not profitable, and the present re- 

 turns by the old methods are not sufficient to make obvious to them 

 the desirability of an expenditure necessary to place the bees in mov- 

 able-frame hives. 



Some are using homemade hives with movable frames, and, where 

 the hives are made with sufficient accuracy to insure proper spacing 

 of the frames, they are giving satisfactory results. White pine of 

 fair grade suitable for hives can be had at small cost in the western 

 part and a soft cypress (white cypress) in the eastern part of the 

 State. A considerable number of factory-made hives have been sent 

 into the State, made of yellow pine of poor quality and with the 

 frame spacing so inaccurate as to make proper manipulation impos- 

 sible. Best results can not be secured with such equipment. 



For the most part the population of North Carolina is scattered 

 and transportation is poor; hence there is not the free interchange 

 of ideas which occurs in sections where the population is dense. 



1 Sherman, Franklin, jr., 1008. Keekeopinj; in North Carolina. Bulletin of N. C. Dept. 

 of Agr., vol. 29. no 1. 



