This subject may be regarded from two standpoints--that of the man who,
with income assured from other sources, pursues beekeeping for its
pleasure; and that of the man who, wishing to increase his slender
income, or actually make an income, turns to beekeeping with a view to
profit on the capital and labor to be invested. But, as to the latter
are denied none of the pleasures enjoyed by the former, it is from the
latter standpoint alone that I shall review the subject.
Beekeeping is, strictly speaking, a branch of agriculture, and many a
farmer is to-day getting a greater return from his investment in bees
than that received from any of his other stock; but right here I say
that beekeeping as a pursuit has to-day become a “specialty.” The man
who enters upon this pursuit (leaving the question of capital aside)
must be one endowed with physical and mental ability; a man with open
eyes and ears, one ready for emergencies, prompt to do what is necessary
at once, and one who is not easily discouraged.
The physical ability is required because beekeeping demands real hard
work--yes, back-aching work--not suitable to the sick ladies and
gentlemen so often ill-advised to go into beekeeping. The mental ability
is required to keep the beekeeper abreast of the times and its rapidly
changing conditions. Beekeeping is now a science, a study, and the
conditions which govern one season, or colony of bees, will be
completely changed for the next. Every stage in the life of a colony of
bees requires to be understood. There must be no “guessing,” and this
will bring us to the cultivation of the habit of observation, and a
disposition to hear all that one can upon the special subject.
Emergencies will occur needing heroic treatment, but the beekeeper with
mind and hand trained by experience and thoughtful consideration of his
“specialty,” will rise superior to any occasion, and when discouragement
comes, as it inevitably will, in the words of the immortal Longfellow,
“He will look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again, but
wisely improve the future for it is his.”
Pleasure and profit go hand in hand, as a rule, in this specialty,
although the former is not unalloyed by a liberal application of the
“business end” of the little busy bee, and the latter by a recurrence of
poor honey seasons. In nature are found both the beautiful and the
sublime; in the hive both are constantly under the beekeeper’s eye,
teaching him to look with amazement from “nature up to nature’s God.” As
he views his hive and sees the city grow, and population increase, the
waxen walls, and stores well filled, the free-born citizen hurrying to
and fro, each with his special task, outside of the thoughts of profit
will come to the most unimpressionable, thoughts of wonder and
admiration for the works of that great Architect of the universe who
said, “Let there be life and there was life.”
The profits of beekeeping are what? To many a one they hold out the
hopes of “the glorious privilege of being independent;” and to obtain
these profits the specialist, gifted with the requisite mental and
physical qualities, must be “the right man in the right place.” He must
have hives of the movable-frame order. Moses Quinby wrote thus, in 1858:
“There is not the least doubt, in my mind, that whoever realizes the
greatest profit from his bees will have to retain the movable combs in
some form;” and who of us will gainsay this to-day? Out of the many
styles of movable-comb hives now in existence, the beekeeper will select
one best fitted for the business in which he means to engage, be it the
production of comb or extracted honey, queen-rearing, bee-selling, or a
combination of all.
The specialist who intends to rear bees for sale will do well to employ
that hive which will take the size and style of frame most in use in the
district in which he resides. Interchangeability of parts is a grand
secret of success, and the beekeeper who can sell a colony of bees, or
buy a colony well knowing that each and every frame is usable in his own
or his neighbors’ hives, has made a step in the right direction. The
main points in a good hive are, “Simplicity of construction, combining
plenty of bee-space with perfect ease of manipulation.”
The race of bees will next engage the specialist’s attention. Study and
experience, and also the actual line of business engaged in, will best
decide this point. The black, the Italian, the Syrian, the Cyprian, and
the Carniolan, alike have their votaries. At present, for all purposes
of sale and honey-gathering, the Ligurian or Italian-Alp bee is the
principal one in demand; but the very best race of bees will afford but
little profit unless the queens are carefully looked after. As fast as
signs of senility appear, these should be removed and their places
supplied by younger and more vigorous queens. The apiarist for profit
should not only rear queens, but know how, when and where to replace
them. He should also know the requisites of a good queen, and how to
judge of her progeny.
Pasture to the beekeeper is everything; if that be poor, his returns
will be poor; hence he should carefully examine his location. Districts
vary greatly in their flora, and by a careful study of this question
before locating, disappointment will be avoided. The beekeeper should be
a walking calendar of the flora of his neighborhood for miles around,
then, as the honey comes pouring in, he can tell its source and label it
accordingly. This knowledge will enable him to build up colonies, and
follow the old advice, “Keep your colonies strong;” so that when the
honey does come, there are bees to gather it in.
The management of bees kept for profit will vary according to the object
of the beekeeper, whether it be the production of honey or the rearing
of bees or queens. In running for honey alone, we have the swarming and
the non-swarming methods. The experiences of good bee-men are so
diversified that one is reminded of the old saying, “when doctors
differ, the patient dies.” The bee-man must strike out his own line of
action suitable to his own special circumstances. In running for
extracted honey, swarming is, to a great extent, controlled, for
“Poverty maketh humble;” but I insist that the good bee-man will know
the condition of each hive, and act accordingly.
The specialist is a man who reads, and although he may not get or use a
single one of the many traps, or patent articles now offered, he should
know all about them; for at any moment, what he has read about these
things may give him an idea, the successful carrying out of which may
help him over a difficulty. The capacity of the beekeeper to attend to a
certain number of colonies, be it greater or less, will have a great
influence on the profits of the pursuit. As a pursuit, beekeeping should
not be entered into without careful thought and consideration as to the
capital required, the location and the suitability of the employment to
one’s temperament. To-day, before embarking in the business, it is
possible for the intending beekeeper to serve an actual and willing
apprenticeship in the yards of well-known and successful bee-masters. I
need dwell not upon the advantages of this plan for they are obvious.
To the enthusiast with but small experience, I would say, “Go slow!”
Read the good bee-literature now so easy to be obtained, and never be
above learning from others. Visit beekeepers wherever you can enjoy the
privilege, attend bee-conventions, and gradually a store of knowledge
will be gathered upon which you will draw with profit later on.
Profitable beekeeping as a pursuit is, to my mind, the outcome of the
union of two great factors--“talent” and “tact;” for “talent is power,
tact is skill; talent is wealth, tact is ready money; talent knows what
to do, tact knows how to do it; talent makes the world wonder that it
gets on no faster, tact excites astonishment that it gets on so fast;
talent may obtain a living, but tact will make one. Talent convinces,
tact converts; talent is an honor to the profession, tact has the knack
of slipping into good places, and keeping them; it seems to know
everything without learning anything: it has no left hand, no deaf ear,
no blind side, with a full knowledge of the Pythagorean doctrine, ‘that
a man ought rather to be silent, or say something better than silence.’”
I submit these remarks to my fellow beekeepers, being painfully
conscious of many shortcomings from the high standard of excellence that
man should attend to who in these days goes into “beekeeping as a
pursuit.”
_Germantown, Pa._
_HOWES’ REVERSIBLE FRAME-SUPPORT._