CONCLUSION.
WE often hear this question asked: "Are bees profitable?" and the
replies given are various, contradictory and amusing, varying in
accordance with the honesty, experience, skill and success of the
bee-keeper. Such as have attempted bee keeping with the old fashioned,
square box hives, under the old system of management based on fire and
brimstone, will say there is no profit in bees, and that you must not
molest them at all; if you do, "they will run out, and you will lose
your luck."
There is another class, who have adopted all the extravagant fancies of
the patent bee hive venders, paying large sums of money for hives worse
than useless, with what are claimed to be patent fixtures--expecting
a sudden fortune as the result, and found the whole thing a fraud.
Perhaps they have been duped in this way a half-dozen times or more,
and always with the same result. This class will tell you emphatically,
that everything pertaining to bees is a humbug and a cheat--no money in
them, etc.
In presenting the statements made in this work, I am not blinded or
influenced by any selfish motive, in condemning or recommending any
one system of bee management or hive. I only wish to present facts, and
do what little I can to make bee-keeping safe and profitable to all
who engage in it. There is much written on the subject of bees--their
habits and management, construction of hives, etc., which is mere
guess-work. A great deal is written, too, for no other than selfish or
prejudiced motives. What is wanted is practical instructions on the
subject--such instruction and statements as are based on experience,
and will stand the test of application, when brought into active every
day use.
The real, practical experience of the bee keeper, who has devoted
many years to the work, and will tell what has come under his or her
personal observation, is worth much more than the finest spun theory
of the most learned and talented theorist; or in other words, mere
conjecture is a poor and uncertain guide in bee keeping. It is an old
but true saying that "Practice makes Perfect." In no business will this
saying apply more closely or with greater force than to bee keeping.
That bees are profitable when rightly managed, I think I have shown in
this little work; and that they can be of no profit, as often managed,
I think is equally made clear.
The natural habits of bees have not been sufficiently understood by
the majority of bee keepers. This has rendered them an easy prey to
the many speculators in bee hives of peculiar shape and construction,
who are constantly urging their claims to possessing great knowledge
of bees, when perhaps they never saw a bee; and care not one straw
for the advancement of successful bee culture. I find, with the great
majority of hives now in use, there are many obstacles to successful
and profitable bee keeping. There is too little room for storing box
honey in them. Boxes are often difficult of access to the bees, so that
they manifest much reluctance about entering them, often clustering
on the outside of the hive through the honey season, when they should
be at work in the boxes. Then, too, the boxes are usually too large,
which renders the honey unsaleable. Honey in large boxes often contain
cells of brood, and bee bread, or pollen, interspersed among the honey
cells, which are a great damage to it, rendering it very unsaleable.
Boxes each holding from one to two pounds, is the proper size. A swarm
of bees in a hive with thirty-eight of these two pound boxes, or
seventy-six one pound, judiciously arranged, will fill them nearly as
quickly as they would half the number, as the bees have ample room to
work without crowding.
There are a vast number of bee keepers who now have bees which are of
no profit to them, but instead are only a perplexity and trouble. If
such would manage their bees on correct and scientific principles, in
accordance with their natural habits and instincts, with judicious care
and attention bestowed at the right time, and in the proper manner,
using a hive constructed in accordance with those principles, they
would be surprised at the results which would follow.
To succeed with bees, we should recollect that personal experience is
the best guide; and next to this is the instruction of those engaged in
the business, who prove by the results which follow their management,
that they make bee culture profitable. In commencing bee keeping if
you purchase bees, use great care in doing so. Buy none but strong,
healthy stocks. If you purchase in box hives or patent hives, you will
be very likely, if not acquainted with bees, or unless purchasing of
some reliable person, to get diseased stocks; and again, a person who
keeps bees by the ordinary methods, is very likely to have diseased
stocks which he thinks are all right. So, great care is necessary in
buying your outfit to commence bee keeping. Diseased stocks are dear at
any price. You want the very best to start with, if you can possibly
get them. Be sure and get such stocks as have young queens, for if the
stock has a queen four years old or more, (and they are likely to be
that old in box or patent hives, under ordinary management,) such a
queen is liable to fail at any time, and loss of stock follows.
In commencing to keep bees, if possible start with good, strong,
healthy stocks, in the right kind of a hive; then you will have no
difficulty in changing them. But if this cannot possibly be done,
be sure to start with strong, healthy stocks. If you must take
second-class hives, of this class the plain moveable comb and box hives
are best. But be sure to let the patent hives entirely alone; they are
a curse to the bee keeper; If you get your bees in second-class hives,
transfer them to Controllable Hives, or as fast as they swarm put them
in Controllable Hives. In this way you will soon have your bees in
shape to pay you a good profit.
When you begin keeping bees, study closely their natural habits and
requirements. Give them such care and attention as your judgment and
present knowledge teach they require. Persevere, and ultimate success
is certain.
Every one who attains success with bees, will find that there is
something more to be done, than simply to stand with folded hands,
with the expectation that a fortune must inevitably follow. Know the
precise condition of your bees at all times--whether they are weak or
strong, whether they are without a queen, or whether the queen has
become so old as to have passed her usefulness. After a period of
years queens become barren, and unless they are removed, and a young
queen substituted, the bees will rapidly decline in numbers, and all
disappear from the hive in a few weeks or months.
It cannot be too strongly urged upon the beginner, this great necessity
of securing strong, healthy stocks to begin with; and if possible get
them in the Controllable Hives. All who do not fully understand the
management and nature of bees, would save themselves much trouble and
perplexity, by procuring, to begin with, one or more healthy colonies
in the Controllable Hives. Your chances of success in the end, and your
profits of the first season, are greater from one swarm in the hive,
than from six in second-class hives. If you purchase bees in inferior
hives, you will need to exercise great care that they are not diseased.
There is not one box or patent hive in fifty (as ordinarily managed)
but that is diseased. They are either badly infested with the bee moth,
have old, mouldy, black combs, an old and diseased queen, or are in
some way diseased. No matter how low the price paid for such stock,
they will be found expensive. Be sure to get none but the best to
commence with; they are the cheapest in the end.
I might illustrate this with many cases that have come under my
observation. One or two I will mention: A gentleman in Connecticut
ordered of me a swarm of Italian bees in the Controllable Hive, in the
spring of 1880, for which he paid me twenty dollars. He wrote me in
June that they were doing finely, and that he never saw bees work so
well--they were at work in all the boxes, some of them being nearly
filled with honey, and all the combs being filled with bees at work
storing; and from appearances he should get a large amount of surplus
box honey from them.
Another gentleman wrote me, about the same time, asking my price for a
swarm of Italian bees, and when informed that it was twenty dollars, he
wrote me that as he could get the Italian bees nearer his home for ten
dollars, he would not order of me, but would invest his twenty dollars
and get two swarms instead of one. He has since written me that one of
the swarms for which he paid ten dollars he had lost outright, leaving
him only a mass of moth worms in old and mouldy black combs.
The other has proved to be queenless, and has caused him more trouble
and perplexity than it is worth, to say the least. There is now not
over a pint of bees in the hive, but he has put in a queen and hopes to
save them from total loss.
I know of another case where a gentleman bought six swarms of bees in
box hives. They were very heavy and he thought of course they were all
right. He knew nothing of the diseases of bees, and supposed if they
were heavy, and had honey enough, that was all that was necessary. He
bought them in the fall at a very low price, and was much elated over
his purchase. Five of the six swarms died during the winter, and the
remaining one came out in the spring so weak as to be of no profit
whatever the next season; and the next winter that also died. It is
better to start with strong healthy stock, even if price seems high,
_poor, weak stocks are dear at any price_.
It is an established fact that to succeed well with bees they must be
kept in hives suited to their habits and requirements, and with the
view of rendering them profitable. Such is the Controllable Hive. And
they must be managed on principles in accordance with nature's laws,
and the instincts and habits of the honey bee. Such is the new system
recommended in this book--Bee Keeping Reduced to a Science; no "luck,"
no "guess-work," no "chance" about it.
Trusting that this little work may be the means of greatly increasing
the profits of bees, I bring it to a close.
MRS. LIZZIE E. COTTON.
PRICE LIST.
As some of my customers reside in localities where lumber and labor
is scarce and high in price, and some perhaps may wish to obtain my
Italian Bees, I add this price list and have made arrangements to
supply such.
I will furnish the material for Controllable Hives, Boxes and all
fixtures (except glass) got out ready to put together for Sixty Dollars
per dozen, Thirty Dollars per one-half dozen.
This price includes all the material and fixtures securely packed and
shipped as freight at lowest rates of transportation to any part of the
United States or Canada.
All parts of hives, boxes, etc., are got out of good Pine Lumber by
machinery with steam power. Any piece or part of a hive will fit the
corresponding part of any other Controllable Hive. One dozen hives
got out in this way and put together makes every part of the dozen
hives interchangeable one with the other. Thus brood frames, glass
honey boxes, feeders, honey boards, box frames, etc., etc., may be
taken from one hive and put into another, and will fit well. This is a
very important point in managing the bees, and is seldom attained to
perfection when the material for hives is got out and put together by
an ordinary carpenter.
A person of average skill with tools will take the material for hives
as I furnish it, and put together ready for receiving the bees, one
dozen Controllable Hives in one day.
Order your material early so as to get your hives and boxes ready for
the bees before the hurry of spring work.
[Hand]_To any one who has the book "Bee Keeping for Profit" I will
forward, for Eight Dollars, to any part of the country, one complete
Controllable Hive, well finished and painted, with the six brood frames
containing comb foundation, and with seventy-six one pound boxes or
in place of them, thirty-eight two pound boxes, (or part of each as
customers may prefer) each box supplied with comb foundation ready for
the bees to commence work, feeder in place on the hive as used for
feeding; the hive all ready to receive a swarm of bees._
_If copy of Book is to be included with the complete hives, price will
be Nine Dollars._
ITALIAN BEES.
_I will furnish six full swarms of Italian Bees, each in Controllable
Hive; the brood section (six moveable comb frames) filled with comb,
honey, eggs and hatching brood well supplied with bees; a healthy
prolific queen; everything ready for work; full swarms, strong and
healthy; first class in every respect, with full set of boxes (the two
sizes) in place on the hive each box containing comb ready for the bees
to fill with honey; feeder on each ready for feeding. I will furnish
the six swarms as described, for One Hundred Dollars._
_I will furnish one swarm of Italian Bees in Controllable Hive with
boxes, feeder and all fixtures required for Twenty Dollars._
_Spring is the best time to commence Bee Keeping on my plan._
No one need be prevented from obtaining these bees no matter how great
the distance they reside from me. I guarantee safe delivery at any
express office.
[Hand] In ordering anything of me if you do not receive what you order,
write, for I warrant everything ordered to reach purchasers and be as
here represented.
_Send money at my risk by Draft, on any City Bank, Registered Letter
to West Gorham, Maine. Express Money Order or Post Office Money Order
drawn on Gorham, Maine._ (Please do not send a Money Order drawn on
_West_ Gorham, for that is not a Money Order office.)
Address all letters to Mrs. Lizzie B. Cotton, West Gorham, Cumberland
County, Maine.
[Illustration]
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Transcriber Note
Minor typos corrected. The cover images were compiled from images made
available by THe Internet Archive and placed in the Public Domain.