6 ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 
a surplus of three or four pounds of extracted honey per day for as much 
as 35 days during July and August. This will give us about 100 Ibs. 
per colony, or a total surplus of 30,000 lbs. from our 100 colonies, which 
we started with in the spring. This, at the wholesale price of 6 cents 
per Ib., brings us $1,800. Then we have 200 colonies of an increase, 
worth about five dollars apiece, which gives us $1,000 more, or a total 
income of $2,800 from our 100 colonies we started with in the spring. 
Now we will deduct the necessary expenses. 
First, $50 for the honey or sugar we fed them to stimulate early 
breeding; and there, my friends, is the key that unlocks all the rest. 
Then we have $400 for the expense of new hives filled with foundation 
for our 200 increase; then the matter of hired help will cost about $125, 
and the necessary barrels to ship your honey in will cost nearly $100 
more, making a total expense of about $675. This, subtracted from your 
income, leaves a net balance of $2,125—a very nice income for less than 
six months’ labor which is not very hard at any time. 
Now, don’t say that this is overdrawn, and borders on the visionary, 
for I know it is not. I have several times taken a few colonies in the 
spring and given them special care as I advise in the above, and in 
every case they have done still better than this. No, my friends, there 
is nothing in the above that is overdrawn. 
The trouble with us all is, we try to keep too many colonies, and in 
doing so we do not give them the care they ought to have. The man 
who requires 500 colonies to give him an income of $1,000 a year is not 
half as good a bee-keeper as the man who will make that amount or 
more from 200 colonies. 
Study your business so as to keep fewer bees and better bees, and 
make more money; also have less idle capital invested; and I know you 
will have less to worry about than if you continue as many as you are 
doing. I repeat, study your business until you understand it well, for I 
assure you that ignorance of any thing connected with our business is 
far more costly than all the bee-books and journals we now have. 
Think this subject over well and when another season comes, have 
all your plans well laid on a good foundation, the cornerstone of which 
must be strong colonies early in the season; and the only way I know of 
to secure these is to stimulate early breeding by early feeding; then all 
the rest is easy enough. Don’t think for a moment that I advocate 
taking any steps backward—far from it. I like to see men push ahead 
in their business, and make it a success, whether it be with 100 colonies 
or 1,000; but in doing so, do as our successful business men do—look 
well to the amount of capital you have invested; look close to your an- 
nual income, and then, with a critic’s eye, look to the net profits of your 
whole business. 
December, 1905 
