The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor WorkMiller, Mary Rogers
Philosophy
The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor Work
Miller, Mary Rogers
Agriculture -- Juvenile literature
I should like to tell you in a few words what can be expected from a
dozen and a half hives of bees with an average of one and one half
days a week spent in the apiary. I believe really, though, that when I
began keeping bees it was not because I expected to make much money.
The whole story of the bee life, as read from different books which I
secured after becoming interested, was so wonderful and fascinating
that I could hardly wait until spring so that I might study the two
hives acquired through the winter. That first spring and summer there
were only those old box hives, which could not be opened for inside
study, and all observations had to be confined to watching the bees
from the outside. The next summer some modern hives that could be taken
apart and every nook and corner laid open to observation were bought.
In the fall I was very fortunate in securing eighteen colonies of bees
at an auction sale, paying therefor only fifty cents a colony, much
to my satisfaction and my neighbours' amusement. Most of the hives
were frame, but of an undesirable sort of frame. The next summer these
colonies were transferred to up-to-date hives. That summer, and for the
next succeeding six summers, these colonies did not fail to yield on
an average about seventy dollars' worth of honey and wax. Counting out
winter losses the number of colonies per year would average twelve, the
number of pounds of honey about three hundred and seventy-five, worth
twenty cents a pound. The bees received only a small part of my time
each day.
Later, when a student at the Ohio State University, as manager of
the apiary there, about the same results were obtained, so that an
average of about five dollars a hive is a conservative estimate. If
one begins in a small way, in a few years he should be able to manage
one hundred colonies. But it should be remembered that the yield per
hive may decrease somewhat as the number of colonies increases, because
of the danger of launching in the business on a large scale. The best
insurance against loss is a thorough study and understanding of all the
details by the practice of bee-keeping on a small scale for a term of
years first.
I may say that the income from the bees aided not a little in helping
me through college, and I may say, also, without exaggeration that
this interest in bees by one enthusiastic student helped in no small
degree toward the inauguration of a course in bee-keeping at our own
Ohio State University. To make the story complete I think I should add
that the writer of this article is at present engaged as assistant in
apiculture, doing experimental work in apiculture in the government
apiaries at Washington, D. C.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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