INTRODUCTION. 



Beekeeping today is gradually becoming more and more restricted 

 to expert or commercial apiarists than to the farmer. The time when 

 nearly every farmer in the state had a few stands of bees on his farm 

 seems to have disappeared. The present condition may probably be 

 due to neglect or possibly a lack of knowledge on general beekeeping. 

 Many times other duties peculiar to the season may have demanded the 

 farmers attention when the bees required some care, and they were 

 left to shift for themselves. Perhaps the present tendency towards 

 specialization has largely been one of the chief factors in neglecting the 

 bee. Many farmers owing to their location have given up general 

 farming and are utilizing their efforts along one special phase of 

 Agriculture. In some localities production of fruit has taken the place 

 of grain farming and production of live stock. Their pastures, meadows 

 and lands that have been under cultivation have been set out in fruit 

 trees. The value of the bee has been overlooked, not only the pro- 

 ducts of its labors, but its supreme importance as an agent in poUeniza- 

 tion of the fruit bloom. It is no longer a supposition, but an estab- 

 lished fact thru long years of experimentation and observation that 

 bees are an absolute necessity in fertilizing the bloom of fruit. No 

 commercial orchardist can afford to depend upon other agencies for the 

 pollenization of the fruit bloom. Many commercial orchardists in the 

 surrounding states have realized that a great percentage of their 

 failure were due to lack of fertilization, not frosts. In order fo safe- 

 guard themselves in the future, they either have started an apiary in 

 their orchards, or hire some apiarist to move his bees to their orchards 

 during the period of bloom. 



In the past bees were housed under conditions adverse to the pro- 

 duction of honey; even at the present time, in some localities, bees 

 are kept in hollow logs, barrels and home made boxes of every dimen- 

 tion. To rob them in the fall of the year, only to get a mixture of 

 honey and dead bees, is neither a pleasant or a profitable business. 

 Bees kept under such conditions become weakened either through the 

 loss of the queen, lack of stores, or disease, and many other factors 

 influencing the normal strength of the colony, because of the impos- 

 sibility of examination. The ever watchful "weevil" or bee moth 

 makes its appearance and soon is the master of the colony. It is a 

 sure indication that beekeepers troubled with beemoth are not 

 familiar with the fundamentals of beekeeping, for the beemoth can- 

 not overcome a colony that is strong and healthy. The resulting 

 trouble from beemoth is really secondary and is a strong indication 

 that another factor contrary to the welfare of the bee is present, caus- 

 ing the colony to dwindle and weaken. That the prospective beekeeper 

 may not be misled by the glowing magazine articles and flowery state- 

 ments, (to the inexperienced a "get rich quick scheme"); that bee- 



