The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-08
s.artins Bee Keepine.


q,he following sletch of an actual expert
40 il given as advice by the Rural Home
onv one who wishes to become an api-
artist:
The beginner should guard against going
-.cxIessIv into be- keeping by putting his
Last dollar into business he knows nothing
Of It is this getting crazy over business
,,bich looks to b a good thing, but with
,rbicb we are not acquainted, and investing
all we have in L, expecting to make fort
ma which runs so many. To be success
{ul in anything, a man must grow up"
;nto If by wears of patient toll and study,
+;u ba becomes master of the business, when
IN niuety-nine Eases out of 100 he will sue
coed was bought up farmer and edu-
Gated by my fsther as such, so that were
10 change my occupation at any time. it
would be that of farming, unless could
have time to study up some business better
10 nv liking before left bee keeping.
In the winter of 1869 l became inter
ested in bees by reading the first edition of
Kings bee-keeper's text book, which
CHANGED TO fall into my hands. Next |
subscribed for one of the bee papers, read
Ouimby's and Langstroth's books, and In
March bought two conlonies of bees and the
bees and hives which needed for two years,
paving $50 for them. Eighteen hundred
and sixty-nine being poor year l had but
one swarm from the two, and had to feed
S. worth of sugar to get them through the
winter. In 1870 ! received enough from
them to buy all the fixtures | wished for
1871 and a little to help on my other ex-
uenses from the farm. So kept on max
ing the bees pay their way, as had re-
solved at the outset that after paying S35 |
would lay out no more money on them than
they brought in. believing that if could
not make two colonies pay, Icould not 200.
In the fall of 1872 I found that l had an
average yield of eighty pounds of comb
honey from each colony which had in the
spring. which was sold so as to give me
$3.50 free of all expense incurred by the bees.
That season 1 bought an extractor, and
being determined to give my bees the care
they needed and knowing that the time the
bees needed the most attention came in
having time, | hired a man to
take my place in the bayfield,. 1t
so happened that he commenced work on
the day Eastwood commenced to bloom. Pre-
viously | had hived a single swarm in an
empty hive and concluded to devote them
to extracted honey The man worked six
teen days at 81 70 per day, and extracted
during those sixteen days honey enough
from this swarm to pay the man for his
work. l state this to show that one new
swarm of bees was equivalent to myself in
the hay field for sixteen days, yet how
many keeping from thirty to fifty colonies
Of bees leave them to go into the hay or
harvest field and then tell us bee keeping
does not pay You can hire man to take
your place in the field, but if you expect to
become master of the bee business so as to
make it pay you cannot hire a man to take
your place in the apiary during the honey
season, as it takes much more skill to be a
successful honey producer than it does to
do the ordinary work on a farm. When
the bees do not require any special atten-
ion, then they can be left to do other work
as we have time, but they must not be neg
elected for day at time when that day
will put them in condition to bring us dol
lars in the future, if we are to be successful
beekeepers.
In 1874 my honey was sold so as to bring
ne 500 free of all expense, and now be-
gan to think of giving up the farm, but
dLelly concluded to hang on to it one year
more, to make sure that could make bee
keeping pay as a speciality. After
deducting the expenses of the bees
from the sales, I found that
l had the next year 1878 the amount
OF Sl,43l, and hesitated no longer, but gave
up farming and embarked in the bee bust
ness, with nothing else as a source of reve-
nue., although since then l have had several
other Irons in the fire. ''''Since 1878 my aver
age income from the bees has not been far
from 81, 200 each year; l keeping only from
nifty to 100 colonies, spring count. Now, had
bought fifty or more colonies to start with
the expense in starting would have been
not less than $500 to $500, which, in all
probability, should have lost in the bust
ness for would not have had knowledge
equal to the doing of so large business on
the start.
My advice to all thinking of bee keeping
as business would be, get one or two colo
nleS of bees, post yourself by reading and
experimenting with them, as you can find
time to do SO from the business you are al
ready in, and thus find out for yourself
which IS the better for a livelihood, the
business you are already in or keeping
bees. If successful after a series of years
you can give up your other business if you
wish TO, and if bees are failure in your
hands then you are but little out.for hav-
ing tried your hand at it.
Chapter of Dont's.
How not to do it," the proud motto of
the Barnacles and Stiltstalkings, is not