BEEKEEPING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1680, 11 May 1904, Page 68

BEEKEEPING.

TO COMMENCE IN BEE-KEEPING “Is this Mr Doolittle, the beekeeper?” “My name is Doolittle, and I keep a few ©oleines of bees. What is your name ?” “My name is Beebe, and I wish, to commence keeping bees in the spring. A neighbour bold me to come over and see you, and you would tel me something that might help me in starting. I had thought of buying fifty colonies. Do you think that number would be as many a<a I should buy?” “I should say that said number would be from five to ten times as many as any beginner should buy, unless he has considerable knowledge of the business before thus starting into it/' “Why do you say thus?” cc ßeea , use the beginner should guard against going recklessly mto bee-keeping by putting his last dollar into a business of which he knows nothing. It is this getting crazy over a business which looks to be a good thing, but -with which we are not acquainted, and investing all we have in it, expecting to make a fortune. Which ruins so many. To be successful in anything, a jnan must ‘grow up’ in it by vears of toil and study till! be becomes master of the business, when, in nineteen eases out of twenty, he will succeed.” “Is that the way you commenced?” “If you will pardon a little personal reminiscence I will tell you briefly of my commencement. In the winter of 1868 I became interested in bees, by reading the first edition of ‘King's Bee-keeper’s Text-book/ Which chanced to fall into my hands. Next I subscribed ifoy one of the bee papers, read Quinby’s and Lnugsfcroth’s books, and in March bought two colonies of bees and the hives which I thought I should need for two years, paying the sum of 30 dollars for the Whole lot. The year 1869 being the very poorest one I have ever known, I had but one swarm from the two colonies I bought, and had to feed 5 dollars worth of sugar to provision the bees through the next winter. In 1870 I received enough from the bees to buy all the fixtures I wished for 1871, and a little more. 'So I kept on making the bees pay their way. as I had resolved, during the winter of 1869, that, after paying the 35 dollars, I would lay out no more money on them than they brought in, believing that, if I could not make the three colonies pay, which I then had. I oould .not three hundred.” “Did you stick to that?”

“Certainly; and in the faf.il of 1872 I found that I had an average of 80 pounds of comb honey from each colony I had in the spring wliich was sold so as to give me 59 dollars free of all expense incurred by the bees, except what time I found it necessary to deviate to them.” “Whew! can bees be made to pay as well as that?”

“Probably not at the present time, as homey brought at that time from 25 to 30 cents a pound, while now that some honey would not bring more than 13 to 16 cents. You will note that I said ‘probably not/ and I thus said because of the depreciation of honey in price. But while the prices of to-day are against ns, yet wo 'have made such am advance m the soience of bee-keeping, and a much better, variety of bees, that it is possible to obtain much more honey from the Same number of colonies at this time than it was in the early seventies.”

“Excuse any breaking in on you. Go on with your story.” “The next year I purchased an extractor, and set apart a single colony to be worked for extracted honey. When the basswood Hoorn opened I .hired a man to take my place in the hayfield, paying him 1.75 dollars pea* day. The man worked 16 days, and I extracted during those 16 days honey enough from that colomy which sold for some 70 to 80 cents more than what I had to pay the man in wages.” “Whe-e-w!” again.

“I told vou this only to show that ono colony of bees ■ properly worked was equivalent to myself or yourself in the hayfield; yet many a beginner who has purchased fifty colonies of bees, as you proposed has left them to go into the hay and harvest fields, or at some other business, only, to go out of the bee business a year or two later, telling _ us and those about them that bee-keeping does not pay. By staring at the foot of the ladder, as it were, working your way up, you will learn these things as you would not were you to start at the top, when in all probability you would work your way down, if you did not fall down. I believe it takes more skill to become a bee-keeper that is worthy the name v*ian it does to do the ordinary work on a farm.” “Then must the beekeeper be tied to his bees every day, and all the day long?” “No. You must learn to tell just when the bees need your attention and when they do not. by a thorough understanding of their workings coupled with the same thorough . understanding of your location as at applies to the bees. Then, when the bees do not require any special attention they can be left, and the apiarist do other work, or play if he likes; but the bees must mot ba neglected few

• single day, •when that day will-put 'them in condition to bring do*Gara in tike future, if yon and I are 'to be successful beekeepers/’ “BtEcruse my breaking in on you this second time. Telil me more about how yon get ailong with the bees.” • “My diary shows that, in 1874, my honey was sold so as to bring me 970 dollars free of all expense from the bees, not counting my time, and now I began to think of giving up the farm, bulb finally concluded to hold on to it one year more, to make sure that I could make bee-keeping pay as a specialty. .After deducting the expenses of the bee® from the sales, I found that I had the next year (1875) the amount of 431 dollars and hesitated no longer, bait gave up fanning and embarked in the bee business with nothing else as a source of revenue. Since then the profits have varied according to the seasons and the prices obtained; 'but in figuring up a

few days ago I found that the average since 1875, or for the past 28 years, has been about 1045 dollars each year, free of afi'l expense incurred by the bees; or in other words, that has been my salary which the bees have paid me, with an average of about •75 colonies in the spaing *of each year.” “Do you spend all of your time on so small a number of colonies?”

“No. In the ear.ly eighties I kept from 200 to 250 coP. canes for a year or two; but the long-continued sickness (five years) of my father, and his death brought new cares upon me, and, having other irons in the fire, I was: obliged to reduce the number of colonies kept.”

“I see I must soon be going, as it is getting late. Tell me in a few words just what your advice to one - contemplating going into the bee business would be."

<c My advice to you, and all others Who think of trying bee-keeping as a business. would be procure from three to five colonies of bees; post yourself by reading about and experimenting with them, as you can find time to do from the business you are already in, and theft find out for yourself. which you are adapted to. and which is the better for a livelihood—-the business you are allready in, or keeping b°es. If successful. after a series of years you can give up your other business if you wish to. On the. contrary, 'if bees are a failure in your hands, then you will be but little out for having tested your ability in that direction.” —“■Gleanings in Bee Culture.”