PROFITS IN BEES 
682 
Bibliography. —The reader who desires 
to pursue the subject further is referred 
to The Flower and the Bee; Plant Life and 
Pollination by John H. Lovell, Chas. Scrib¬ 
ner’s Sons, N. Y. The bibliography of pol¬ 
lination is very extensive. In 1906 Knuth’s 
Handbook of Flower Pollination listed 3748 
titles. Among the more important investi¬ 
gators are Sprengel, Darwin, Mueller, Del- 
pino, Kerner, Loew, Knuth, and Asa Gray. 
Their books are now out of print, but may 
be consulted in the larger libraries. 
POLLINATION OF FRUIT BLOOM. 
See Fruit Bloom. 
PRICKLY PEAR (Opuntia). —There 
are between fifty and sixty species in the 
southwestern States. Succulent plants, 
with jointed branched stems, often spine¬ 
bearing; leaves small and awl-shaped: 
flowers wheel-shaped, without floral tube, 
usually yellow, or yellow inside and red 
outside. Thruout southern and western 
Texas Opuntia Engelmanii is common,, and 
under favorable climatic conditions which 
occur about once in four years, yields a 
large surplus. Extremely hot and humid 
weather is required during the blooming 
period. The honey is very heavy and 
almost viscous in consistency, having a ropy 
appearance when it is extracted. The color 
is light amber and the flavor very good. The 
prickly pear is an important source of pol¬ 
len, and one of the most dependable of Tex¬ 
an honey plants for this purpose. 
PRIORITY RIGHTS.—See Overstock¬ 
ing. 
PROFITS IN BEES.—This question is 
a hard one to answer, as so much depends 
on the locality, the man, and the number 
of bees to the area. 
Considering the average production of the 
poor and the good beekeepers, in the north¬ 
ern States, in what is known as the rain- 
belt, one might perhaps expect to get any¬ 
where from 25 to 50 lbs. of comb honey, 
and perhaps from 25 to 30 per cent more 
of extracted. There will be some seasons 
when he might secure as much as 200 lbs. 
or more on an average, and occasional sea¬ 
sons when there would be no surplus of 
comb nor extracted, and the bees would re¬ 
quire to be fed. Taking one year with an¬ 
other, the ordinary beekeeper ought to av¬ 
erage about 50 lbs. of comb honey, on a 
conservative estimate, provided he has rea¬ 
sonable skill and love for the business. The 
comb honey might net him, deducting' the 
expense of selling, from 10 to 25 cents; 
the extracted, from 7 to 12. These figures 
do not include the labor of producing the 
honey nor the cost of the fixtures. The cost 
of the equipment, exclusive of sections and 
foundations, ought to be sufficient to cover 
10 to 20 years if no increase is made. Sup¬ 
pose the comb honey be put at 50 lbs. as 
the average, and the price secured 15 cents 
net. The actual money one would get from 
the commission merchant or grocer might 
be about $7.50 per colony; but out of this 
he must deduct a certain amount for labor, 
and 10 per cent on the cost of equipment, 
to be on the safe side. 
With only a few bees the labor need not 
be considered, as the work could be per¬ 
formed by some member of the family 
or by the man of the house, who could, dur¬ 
ing his spare hours, do a little with bees, 
and work in his garden. In case of one, 
two, or three hundred, the labor item must 
be figured. The larger the number crowd¬ 
ing the available territory, the smaller the 
profit per colony. A rough estimate for an 
apiary in a locality not overstocked, not 
including the labor on the $7.50 actually 
received for honey sold, ought to leave a 
net profit of somewhere about $5.00. This 
would be on the basis that the locality did 
not require much feeding in the fall. Tf 
feeding was found to be necessary, 50 cents 
more might have to be deducted, making a 
net profit of $4.50. On this basis it will 
be seen that the profit in one season ought 
to pay for the hives and supers in two 
years, or come very close to it, leaving the 
investment good for ten or more years. Tf 
it is figured that way the ten per cent need 
not be added. For a professional man, or 
one who has other business, even these re¬ 
turns are not bad; for if he secures only 
enough for family use, the diversion or 
change to relieve the tired brain is worth 
something. 
The question as to whether one should 
keep few or many bees will depend upon 
many conditions; but the principal one is 
the ability of the man. Many a person can 
handle a few chickens, and get good re¬ 
sults; but when he runs the number up into 
