Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-06-24
BEES,
Mistakes Often Made by Beekeepers Be-
ginning BuSiness.

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ginning Business.
A beginner is quite likely to fall into
the error of increasing his colonies too
rapidly. There is probably no mistake
so disastrous as this, on account of it's
frequency and results. To the beginner
this is very tempting ground. If bee-
keeping must be learned by experience
and reading, without the serving of an
apprenticeship, the beginning should
be small, and practical knowledge and
skill should keep pace with the increase
of colonies. A common mistake is to
look upon beekeeping as a sort of royal
road to wealth, or at least to a good liv-
ing, with little labor and, as some seem
to think, little brains, after they have
once learned a few secrets" TO choose
any business simply because it is profit
able is folly. A business that is unusu-
ally profitable does not long remain 80.
It soon becomes o~vercrowded and loses
its bonanza character. A man should
choose a business because he and his
surroundings are best adapted to the
pursuit.
If great yield per colony is the re-.
suit of a great deal of work, it may be
that the work was done at a loss. It
may sometimes be profitable to put .
great deal of work OF each colony, but
each beekeeper should ask himself,
How, all things considered, can I make
the most profit? That is the question,
and all other propositions not relating
directly thereto are mistakes. And this
leads to the mention of the opposite
mistake of keeping too few bees. In
stead of keeping only a few swarms
and striving to secure the largest yields
per colony, it is often more profitable,
when n is accustomed to the business,
to keep more bees-enough to gather all
the honey produced in a given area.
| And then, when the said area is over
! stocked, it is probably a mistake not to
start other apiaries.
Another mistake is that of choosing
hives, implements and methods that are
complicated and require much time for
their manipulation. A most common
error in this line is in trying to adapt
hives to bees to an extent which almost
entirely ignores the adaptability of the
hive to the beekeeper. We do not keep
bees nor arrange their hives with a view
to saving them labor, but that we may
get the most honey with the least labor
to ourselves. Dove tops, queen tops,
self hivers, queen e%xcluders, smokers
and many other contrivances are proba-
bly, not considered ''handy" by the bees,
but their use is an advantage to us.
1t is in a line with this method of rea-
soning that cause some beekeepers to
make the mistake of c~ondemning any
practice that is not according to ma
ture." The system Of modern bee cul.
ture is wholly artificial. In some things
it is advisable to allow nature to have
her own way, in others it is not, and we
have the best success when We have
learned just where we can advantage.
ously, to a certain extent, modify ma
lures methods. It is a mistake to have
undue confidence in the leaders in bee
culture. They may err, or some I'm.
known circumstances may cause differ.
emit results at different times in othe,
localities. 1t is a mistake to pin ones
faith blindly to~:another's.
One expensive mistake, yet one that
is easily avoided, is made year afte1
year by many b~eekeepers, and that is il
not securing hives, sections, foundations
and other supplies in season.-W. z
Hutchinson.