General Blog

Of the various industries in the United States, beekeeping could with intelligent management and the expenditure of a little energy, be made to pay handsomely with less outlay of capital and time than anything else and of the various classes engaged in beekeeping, the " beekeeping for beginners," is the one best fitted to push this industry to the front.

In the first place, nature as a rule, provides her with a good field, and this, combined with study and energy, will, under favorable circumstances, yield her quite a little income annually.

Just like anything else in business, there are ups and downs in the business, regardless of the kind of bees you keep, the boxes you use or the section you live in, for such will not be the case.

Beekeeping, as an occupation for a beginner, has its objectionable as well as commendable features, and for this reason it would not advisable for anyone to adopt it as an occupation until he or she is satisfied beyond a doubt that the section in which he or she lives is well fitted for beekeeping. It is also necessary that they should have a taste for the business, otherwise it would not be advisable to engage in it at all.

It is true, there are people who have made quite a success financially as professional bee-keepers hut, such cases are very rare and the sections in which they live are exceptionally fine for the production of honey. This is not said to discourage beekeeping as an occupation, but as a profession.

While there are some whose locations are especially adapted to beekeeping and who make handsome incomes annually, there are others who with the same expenditure of labor and capital, owing to the unsuitability of their locations, make little or nothing. Hence, the location has more to do with successful beekeeping, according to the way of thinking, than anything else. For instance, there are sections of the United States where from 200 to 300 colonies of bees may be successfully kept in one yard, owing to an abundance of good honey producing plants, while there are others where not more than a dozen may be kept profitably.

The proper method is not to invest too heavily at first. Two or three or four colonies of Italian bees in improved or movable frame boxes are sufficient to start with. Then subscribe to some good bee journal and study the business—study it hard. Test your field thoroughly, and add no more colonies to your yard than the field will support and give you a fair surplus under ordinary circumstances. When you have readied this point you can sell your increase (if you keep good, pure-bred stock) and add quite a nice sum to your income annually. If you keep good stock and advertise it. you will have no trouble in selling it at a fair price. And right here I will say there are more ways than one to get money out of bees. There is just as much money to be made from the sale of queen bees as there is from the sale of honey, and in a dull season, when there is not much honey made, you can divide your stock, build them up and sell off the surplus and still have as many or more colonies than you started with for the fall or next spring honey crop. Artificial division and queen-rearing can both be very readily learned by anyone that has a taste for beekeeping, and by these methods a nice little sum may be picked up annually by the farmer’s wife, children or new hires.

If you wish to make a success with bees, do not start with black bees in box hives. If you do, you need not expect to succeed. Purchase one or more boxes of Italian bees in improved boxes, and start right. There is just as much in the stock of bees as there is in well-bred cattle, or anything else. The Italian bee was imported from Italy many years ago, and after undergoing most thorough tests by expert bee-keepers, has long since been pronounced and recognized as the best all-round, general-purpose bee in the world. You will make no mistake in buying the Italian, either the three-banded, five-banded, golden, or leather-colored varieties. All are good.

The Italian will fly further for honey than any other bee and, owing to its greater tongue-reach, can gather honey from many deep tubed flowers which the common black bee cannot work at all. The tongue of the average Italian will measure from 20/100 to 21/100 of an inch, while that of our common black bee will not exceed 16/100 of an inch. Hence, when crimson clover is grown the Italians will, as a rule, store a nice crop of surplus honey, while the black bees will procure hardly enough to keep themselves alive. I have proven this to my own satisfaction time and again.

There is another point in favor of the Italians that speaks highly for them; they will not under ordinary circumstances, tolerate the presence of the moth or webworm that destroys thousands of boxes of bees annually throughout the country where the blacks are kept.

An old box hive, as you perhaps know, sometimes throws out three or four swarms of bees in the spring. In a case of this kind there are usually not enough bees left to cover the combs. And here is where the moth gets in her work. It is the nature of the black bee to protect no more comb than they actually cover, and in a case of this kind three-fourths of the comb remains unprotected. Hence, the moth crawls in and deposits eggs in the cells of all unprotected combs, and in due time each egg produces a worm that spins webs from comb to comb, and in a short time completely destroys that which remains of the colony of bees and every particle of comb.

In the case of the Italians it is quite different. They rarely swarm themselves weak, and when this does occur it has been proven that, though only a handful may be left, they will industriously traverse the combs and keep them clean and free from the eggs that the moth may slip in and deposit.

Perhaps it is not generally known that a colony of bees consists of four classes: Two classes of workers, queen and drones. The two classes of workers are field bees, those that gather pollen and honey, and nurse bees or comb builders, those that attend to the duties inside the box. The duty of the field force is to bring the honey in and deposit it in the cells, while the nurse bees seal it up at the proper time, and also deposit food in the cells containing eggs or "grubs" (which are young bees just started), to be consumed by the "grub" after the cell is sealed up, which is promptly done on the ninth day from the time the egg is deposited by the queen. In twelve days more young, thoroughly developed bees will gnaw their way from the cells and crawl around on the comb two or three days before going forth on the wing to gather honey from the field.