CHAPTER X.
PROFITS OF BEE KEEPING.
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, and even at the present time, by the ordinary methods of bee keeping, if a profit of five dollars from one hive of bees in one season was gained it was considered "good luck." You know there is no system in the ordinary methods of bee keeping. It is either "good luck" or "bad luck;"—all "luck" and "chance," anyway.
In one year they get five dollars profit from a stock of bees; the next honey season they get nothing, and the bees all die in the winter; or perhaps they will survive that winter, and the next season swarm, and fly away to the woods; or perhaps refuse to swarm, and remain idly clustered on the front of the hive throughout the entire honey season, and die from want of food before the winter is half gone.
Bee keeping by the ordinary methods is a very precarious and uncertain occupation. The profits are small at best, and losses large and frequent.
With my Controllable Hive and common sense system of bee management (as described in this work,) founded on correct and scientific principles, bee keeping is reduced to a science. There is no "luck," no "guess-work," no "chance" about it. There can be no loss in bee keeping without a cause; there can be no gain without a full and correct understanding of the natural habits and requirements of bees. A correct knowledge of the subject insures success.
I will now present a few statements, exhibiting the practical results which follow the use of my Controllable Hive and new system of bee management, and showing the great contrast in profits and general success in the care of bees.
In the season of 1870, one of my hives of native bees yielded two hundred and fifty-three pounds of surplus honey, in glass boxes, from the 20th of May to the 1st of July. In 1875 one hive yielded three hundred and eighty pounds of surplus honey in glass boxes during the season. This was the largest yield I ever had, and shows what is possible by liberal feeding with a thrifty stock of bees, giving them every facility, with a view of securing the largest possible amount of surplus box honey. In this case, I selected, in early spring, the very best stock I could find, and pushed it as hard as possible throughout the entire spring, summer and early fall. My success exceeded even my most sanguine expectations. As it may serve to aid others in producing large yields of honey, I will describe minutely the method pursued to secure this large and extraordinary yield.
Very early in the spring I selected the most populous stock in my possession. It was ruled by a young and exceedingly prolific Hybrid queen, a mixture of Italian and Native blood. I commenced early in the spring to feed this stock lightly but regularly, every day at evening. I fed about one-half pound of feed per day, until a few days before the flowers were in bloom profusely! This was done to encourage breeding. Very early in the spring they were fed com and rye meal, as directed in this work.
For a few days before the flowers were blooming profusely, I fed liberally—in fact, gave them all I could possibly induce them to take up; the object being to get the store comb in the body of the hive, not occupied with brood, completely filled with honey. The glass boxes, twenty-six in number (with the Feeder,) each holding about four and one-half pounds of honey, were arranged in connection with the hive (sides and top,) several weeks prior to the appearance of the flowers, that the bees might become accustomed to them, and the more readily enter them, and commence work. When I ceased feeding (which was on the appearance of the flowers yielding a good supply of honey,) the boxes were filled with bees, and comb-building had commenced. The hive was at this time filled to overflowing with bees, and the combs had brood in all stages of growth, from the egg to the perfect bee. I had taken the precaution to cut out nearly all the drone comb, and fit in its place worker comb, so I had but very few drones to consume the honey. I had also arranged so as to have no increase by swarming, but to have all the bees employed storing surplus honey in the boxes throughout the season.