The American Apiculturist. Vol. III. No. 6, June 15, 1885 / A Journal Devoted to Scientific and Practical Beekeeping

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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.