Need of Training
From the requirements indicated for good beekeeping, it is evident that you will need all the information obtainable before engaging in the business on a commercial scale. Such training you may secure through the agency of the Federal Board for Vocational Education from courses in beekeeping in some of the agricultural colleges. After you are well equipped with all that one of these colleges can give you, then a good plan probably will be to arrange for a season, or part of a season, in the apiary of a thoroughly good commercial beekeeper. This selection must be made with great care. Not all beekeepers who are fairly successful in honey production are as careful in their work as they should be, and by working with the wrong man you might get into beekeeping habits that should be avoided. A man should be chosen who makes a study of the behavior of his bees, one who is familiar with the literature of his vocation, and if possible, one who is able to succeed in regions where most of the beekeepers fail to get the full crop. After a season with such a man—and there will be many who will be glad to have your services in this way—you should be able to care for 100 colonies managed for extracted honey, provided your disability does not prevent you from doing the work necessary. By that time you will have a good idea of the amount of work which 100 colonies require.
You should avail yourself of every opportunity to visit apiaries and talk with expert bee men. Visits to and careful surveys of the apiaries of others who are successful may be worth almost as much to you as a season’s close application.
Beekeeping means outdoor life under healthful conditions, well suited to facilitate recovery from incipient tuberculosis, neurasthenia from shell shock and other afflictions. At first in some of the manipulations of the apiary there will be more or less difficulty which will arise directly from your disability, but by the exercise of ingenuity you will be able to devise ways of doing the work. If you have lost an arm, you will need an artificial arm or some device for lifting the hives and hive parts. Racks to hold frames while working with them, trays and small tables are used and you will improvise other conveniences. If your disability prevents your getting about easily, you will be able to arrange your apiary so that there is the least possible amount of walking. Light stools are employed for sitting while working over hives. After training, the sooner you get to work the better. You will find that actual work with artificial limbs and devices has a greater theoretic value than mere exercises and work is incomparably more interesting.
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE COURSES IN BEEKEEPING
One of the best ways to acquire a thorough knowledge of beekeeping is to take a course in one of the agricultural colleges which offers such work. It must, of course, be understood that the knowledge so gained must of necessity be largely theoretical, for there is not time in a college course for much practical work. However, if the work is properly presented the student should be able at the close of the course to begin with 100 colonies and then he may work up in beekeeping practice as he increases the number of colonies. The following colleges offer good courses in this subject:
University of Minnesota, College of Agriculture, St. Paul, Minn.
College of Agriculture. Ames, Iowa.
Agricultural College, Storrs, Conn.
College of Agriculture, New Brunswick, N. J.