Page 138 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

Dubuque and points not too distant. I sell to local grocers at sixty cents a bail
as a general rule, and get fifty-five to seventy cents from outside markets.
When I sell to the consumer, I get twenty cents a pound, and I did a lot of
consumer business last year. It’s in that market most of the money is to be
made. However, I haven’t been able to take the time to develop consumer
demand properly, although I’ve been determined for a long time to go after it.

“Bee keeping is fascinating as well as profitable. You can keep bees in any
place—the cellar, barn, garage, attic or even in a closet which has an outside
window, and be perfectly sure that as long as you have a good queen in
charge, the colony will stay ‘put.’ If the colony is permitted to get too large,
however, there is a chance that a queen coming out of the winter brood will
lure a portion of them to swarm in a hollow tree somewhere. So it is good
policy to watch them and separate them, giving the queens from your brood a
house of their own so they won’t lure other bees to swarm.

“I believe much of my success has been due to the use of the Caucasian bees
exclusively. These bees are gentler and permit you to work among them
faster than you could with other types. They seem to be less inclined to
develop disease, and their crop of honey is fully as good as the Italian bee.
Experience has taught me the disadvantages of the big hive, however, and I
now use standard ten frame equipment, with full depth hive bodies for supers.
I simplify the provisioning of the brood chamber by slipping in a frame of
honey from another super, assuring ample winter stores. Combs with patches
of drone are easily removed by exchanging with combs from supers and
allowing the brood to emerge above. When the comb is filled with honey at
the end of the season it is handled right along with the rest of the crop until
extracted. A mark across the top bar, made with a hive tool, makes its
identification simple and disposal sure.”

A bee apiary may be started with a few dollars. A small colony will more
than pay for itself in a short time, and furnish a hobby or a side line that is
immensely fascinating. Housing equipment may be made by yourself, or may
be purchased for as little as ten dollars. The equipment is designed as a
permanent colony home, and is built to withstand freezing temperatures.