Many folks want to know whether it is possible to make a living from bees and how they can go about getting started. If one has a good outfit in a suitable location and understands the business there is no trouble about making a living from bees, but how to get into such a situation is not so easy to tell. Lack of suitable equipment, lack of capital and experience offer a serious handicap. Like any other business, it requires some time to master the essentials of honey production. The best way to start is to get a few bees wherever one happens to be, and proceed to learn the details of their care. One who is so situated that he can secure employment with a commercial beekeeper for a season or two will find that the most direct route to an understanding of the business.

There is always much encouragement in the story of one who has succeeded under similar conditions. There comes to the author's mind, the story of one after another who have taken up beekeeping under a serious handicap and yet succeeded to the extent of acquiring independence thereby. So many come to mind, teachers who had found too great a nervous strain in their work and needed change and rest, men with incomes insufficient and whose jobs were uncongenial, housewives who wanted a means of earning money for themselves with something to furnish a means of self expression outside the home, and others who preferred to follow beekeeping to any other work they knew. Speaking only of those who have succeeded and whose dreams have come true, there are many such in widely separated localities.

One of the most successful was a housewife who became interested in bees as a means of finding something alive and productive for her small son. The mother found far greater interest in the project than did the son. Beginning with an initial investment of ten dollars, it finally grew into a large scale business needing the assistance of hired men and required the rental of several apiary sites within driving distance of the city in which she lived.

She is by no means the only housewife who has become a successful honey producer. Another with her daughter and the assistance of a hired man had apiaries aggregating 500 colonies of bees and produced honey by the carload. Like the first, her home was in a small city and her bees kept on rented sites in the country.

Again there is inspiration in the case of a cultured lady who was a teacher in a woman's college. With the bees, she found work in the open, a liberal financial return for her work and the opportunity to spend her winters in a mild climate. All these things the bees gave to her and certainly the open air work and winter travel would not have been available through her former occupation.

The success of these women is mentioned because there are not so many of them engaged in out of door occupations and there is always interest in the unusual. There are so many men engaged in honey production as a business that it is hard to single out any particular individuals as offering inspiration to those who would do likewise. Many of those who write for information are in the position of meeting heavy responsibilities with no reserve which will enable them to undertake a change of occupation that involves any risk. With dependent families, they must meet the bills of the butcher, the baker and the grocer every month from current earnings. The only way out for them is a gradual building up of something which can be done without impairing their present earning capacity until the new venture will provide for their needs.

A man of this kind was a carpenter, a friend of the author. He started with bees as so many do with a small outlay and gave his spare time to them. His little apiary grew slowly for several years while he was learning the how and why of beekeeping. Finally he felt that he knew enough about bees to enable him to risk his all with them. Except for a short period of a few months when he was temporarily thrown back upon his trade, he spent the rest of his life with his bees. They paid for his home, provided for his family and educated his children. He had a wonderful time in the shade of his own apple trees and seemed to be one of the happiest of men.

A bookkeeper built up his business in much the same way and later came to depend entirely upon the bees. Of course, not all have succeeded, but no more do all succeed with any other line of business. One great attraction of beekeeping lies in the fact that it can be built up from a small beginning and the novice can learn whether or not he is adapted to the business without endangering the security of his present position.

One can start with a few bees almost anywhere, even in a large city. When it comes to making a living from bees, however, one must have a suitable location for good harvests can only be secured where there is plenty of good bee pasture within reach. If one happens to be in a good beekeeping region, it is possible to grow up gradually and safely like those mentioned here have done and finally arrive at the place of independence without risk or great sacrifice. If the local bee pasture is poor, the time will come when one must decide whether to move or combine beekeeping with some other occupation better suited to the locality. Bees go very well with flowers, poultry, small fruit, etc., and many have found a way out through some such combination.