One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money

by Harold Morse Dunphy

Extent of Beekeeping in the United States

There are in the United States about 800,000 persons who own bees, although not all of them can be classed as regular beekeepers. Perhaps the average bee owner has about 10 colonies. Since there are many owning bees by the hundreds of colonies, it is obvious that the majority have only two or three colonies. This side line of a few hives on the farm does not really pay, but is just a little luxury. The type of beekeeping presented to you here is for a vocation, and is the practical kind employed by the best beekeepers of the country—by men who make a good living by keeping bees.

The retail price of honey has gradually advanced to 40 cents or more per pound, and beeswax to 42 cents wholesale, notwithstanding the fact that there was produced in 1918 about 250,000,000 pounds of honey. This probably does not cover the entire honey crop of the United States, since a large amount is marketed locally. In fact this product is so greatly in demand that a large percentage is sold at the home of the apiarist. Apiarists can, if attentive to the attractiveness of their product and considerate of their customers, hold them and make of each an advertisement for additional business. The honey crop of the United States is estimated annually at $20,000,000, and yet there has never been a time when any country on the globe could produce enough to make this delicious food a common article of diet.

Not all parts of the United States are equally good for beekeeping, and it is advisable for one who contemplates making it his life work carefully to consider the selection of a location. As a rule, it is not advisable to go too far from the country with which you are familiar. Bees may be kept with profit almost anywhere where agriculture is practiced, the returns depending largely on the care given to the bees.

The most widely known region for beekeeping is that of the northeastern quarter of the country, where white and alsike clovers yield nectar. Although these plants reach their highest yield in the northern tier of States, they are also productive farther south. In the northern region bees get considerable quantities of nectar from basswood, tulip poplar, buckwheat, sweet clover, and locust, and in some localities from other plants of decided honey value. The buckwheat region of southern New York and northern Pennsylvania is included in the clover region.

The second region in importance is that in which the bees get their nectar from alfalfa. This plant, which is now grown in all parts of the country, does not yield much nectar except in the irrigated portions of the West and is therefore practically valueless for the beekeeper east of the Missouri River. The honey from this source is white in the higher altitudes of Colorado and Utah, and amber in Arizona, New Mexico, and California.

The southeastern part of the country offers many opportunities to the beekeeper, but the business has not been so well developed there. The nectar comes from numerous plants which are influenced by various soils, temperature, and other factors. The honey usually does not come in very rapidly and is often darker than other honeys, but since the plants yield for a longer period, the beekeeper is able to get good returns for his labor.

The semiarid region of the southwest produces many plants which secrete nectar in abundance. This region is subject to drought and there are years when the beekeeper has to feed his bees to keep them alive. However, taking a series of years into account, this region pays as well as any other.

The sage region of southern California offers great opportunities to the beekeeper. The honeys are chiefly white and secretion is abundant when there is sufficient rainfall. In this region also honey is obtained from blossoms of citrus fruits, which being irrigated are not so liable to failure as the plants growing in the desert. The chief problem in this part of the country is to strengthen the colonies in time for the nectar flow from citrus fruit blossoms. This may be done by application of proper care at the right time. In choosing the location for an apiary in the sage region, great care should be exercised to select one where the average rainfall is about 20 inches. Information regarding rainfall may be obtained from the Weather Bureau offices or from forest supervisors. Many of the best locations are in the national forests, where a location may be obtained at a small rental and other beekeepers will not be permitted to encroach.

In addition to these chief regions, there are many localities where other plants are of sufficient value to make a good crop of honey. Such regions are the buckwheat region, already mentioned; the Spanish needle region of the Kankakee swamps of northern Indiana and Illinois and the Delaware River Valley; the willow herb regions of northern Michigan and Wisconsin, Maine, Washington, and Oregon; the sweet clover regions of Alabama and Kentucky; the blue thistle region of the Shenandoah Valley; the raspberry region of northern Michigan; the smartweed region of the Middle West (corn belt); and the bean region of Southern California. There are many other restricted regions as valuable as those mentioned.