The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1913-02-28
TO TENNESSEE FARMERS.
BY Capt. r. +. Peck, Commissioner of Agr-
culture.
Bee Keeping in Tennessee.

/ 'nhSnltHut, l'npOFJhnce anu poHSl-
bilities of the bee keeping industry.
Few understand that it is a profit
able industry and ri avocalion
which one may follow exclusively
and make a comfortable living 10
say nothing Of a surplus income.
1t has been proven that it is
branch that can be made to yield
Il larger profit for the same outlay
and less expenditure of labor and
money than any ordinary branch
of agriculture. If only small
part of the attention which many
farmers give to other branches was
given to the cultivation of q good
strain Of bees they would be sur
prised at the success they would
achieve and the increase Of their
annual income.
The census report of 1900 place
the number of beeke-p-rs in the
United States at over 100000, the
number Of colonies or swarms of
bees at over 100000 and the an-
nual income from honey and WAX
at over $22,000,000. These figures
give the average annual income
from each hive of bees at $5.5
This estimated average per hive
comes from The count of the good,
bad and Indifferent bee keepers.
1t the bad and the Indifferent bee
keepers were left out the average
per swarm would br much greater
Indeed, it is a profitable industry
when pursued after modern, up-to-
date methods We can safely say
that eAch stand of bees when look
ed after intellig+nil, ,sci-n, firnlly,
using modern appliances, will yield
to Keepers, at low estimate, IS,
and under favorable conditions as
much as $6and $40 and often more.
There is no agricultural pursuit
that will equal bee keeping in re-
turns for the labor and money ex-
pended Each hive will cost ap-
proximattly 50 and should WELD
annually from SIS 10 $S with little
labor aud small additional expense.
Any farmer, fruit grower, nursery
man, who takes time 10y the fore
lock-" and makes pr. parations in
the winter time for he honey flows
in the spring and summer, can
easily care for fifty, seventy five or
even hundred colonies Of bees
and have from $500 to 5000 to his
credit at the end of the season.
When attention has been given
to this preparatory work in the
winter when the weather ia too
cold, wet and disagreeable for farm
work, very little time is required
from the regular farm duties to
help the bees gather hundreds and
hundreds of pounds of nature s
most delicious sweet.
The work will really be reduced
down to putting on snpers forrthe
bees to 6ll-tiering up each hive
as the demand for room comes
with a favorable honey flow.
Taking off the supers is simple
matter aud the work of extracting
and bottling can be done at odd
times at ones own convenience.
One of the members of the Tennes-
see Bee Keepers Association has
a farm of $50 acres, all in cultiva-
ton, to demand his attention. He
isan aggressive, up-to.date farmer,
and yet with all this farm to plan
for and direct, he finds time to look
after well-kept apiary. During
the summer of 1911 the returns
from his fifty.seven stands of bees
amounted to a little over $4OO, and
his farm received practically as
much attention as it would have
received he had not had the bees.