In J 899 the Association had thirty-eight members, who owned 

 3, J 78 swarms of bees, yielding 130,000 pounds of comb honey. 

 How many bees were owned by persons not members was not 

 known. The business was growing and prospering. 



Secretary Rauchfuss estimated the number 

 of bees in the State in J 897, putting the total at 

 about 70,000 colonies. The yield of honey that 

 year was twenty-six pounds per hive, and the 

 total value of the honey was about $80,000. 

 The Association then had forty-three members. 

 From this time on the organization grew faster 

 than the business it represents. 



In J899 Mr. Rauchfuss was able to report 

 J 65 members in good standing, and now the 

 membership roll includes about 290 names. 

 The industry represented has grow^n in import- 

 ance. The bee-keepers are learning the need of 

 organization and proving the value of co-opera- 

 tion. They save by buying together; they gain 

 by selling together. They have established a 

 system of grading that has given Colorado 

 honey an honorable name in the markets of 

 Eastern cities, where the choicest of our pro- 

 ducts are consumed. 



Among American associations of bee- 

 keepers the Colorado organization is one of the foremost. Among 

 its members are some of the best known bee-keepers in the United 

 States, as well as a number of the most competent writers for the 

 bee journals. Colorado is famous for her alfalfa honey and her 

 wide-awake honey producers, some of the most successful of whom 



FRANK RAUCHFUSS, Denver. 

 Manager Colorado Honey Producers 

 Association: a Former Secretary 

 of the State Association: Mem- 

 ber Executive Committee. 



are women. 



Most people like to read of big things. The business that is 

 represented by millions appeals to them. They are interested in 

 things in the mass — in carloads of needles and pins, in train loads 

 of apples and strawberries. In speaking of the bee industry in 

 Colorado we are not forbidden by the truth to use large figures. The 

 bee is small, but his name is legion. An average swarm of bees 

 weighs five pounds ; but there are 25,000 of the little workers in the 

 swarm. There are, approximately, 75,000 swarms or colonies in the 

 State — nearly 2,000,000,000 of bees! To keep these myriads of tiny 

 workers busy, two Denver firms distributed fifteen carloads of bee 



