Beekeeping Should be a Specialty
Frequently one sees articles advocating the keeping of a few colonies of bees so that one may have all the honey desired. This sounds rather well, but such advice does not work out well in practice. Only those persons who study and devote themselves to the business are successful beekeepers. They make money, some big money. One Indiana man’s 1918 honey crop exceeded $20,000. Success requires making beekeeping the chief vocation, for the person who does not rely upon it for his living is likely to be busy when the bees most need his care, and being constantly engrossed in other things he does not take the time to study the problems of the beekeeper. Beekeeping is preeminently a specialist’s job, and it can not be recommended for the disabled soldier except as a specialty. To be convinced of the necessity for specializing you have only to visit farmers who have a few colonies of neglected and sometimes diseased bees, in some out of the way place, which never pay and are a menace to the success of all good beekeepers in the neighborhood.