Father was a box-hive beekeeper and did not have enough interest in beekeeping to develop beyond this stage, although he did use section honey boxes with foundation. Needless, to say, his production was so low that he did not have a marketing problem.

Dad's dozen or more colonies fired my enthusiasm to such a high pitch that I was given an encyclopedia on beekeeping on my 11th birthday and this interest in beekeeping has not lagged during the past 40 some years.

My first bee book, however, was not what I, as a beginner needed. It was in encyclopedia form and was too large for me at 11 years old to correlate the various chapters and as a result I did not learn the simple essentials needed. It was several years before I saw the inside of a brood nest as all of Father's hives were cross-combed box-hives, although they looked like moveable frame hives from the outside.

Since then I have kept bees commercially in Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee. On our Louisiana bee farm we have kept over 1, 000 swarms of bees for many years.

In our search for material for our former magazine, MODERN BEEKEEPING, Mrs. Kelley and I traveled tens of thousands of miles in the United States and many thousands of miles in both Eastern and Western Canada and in Western Europe, and as a result many of the pictures in this book were taken on these trips.

Feeling that there was an urgent need for an improved beginners' book with clear sharp pictures, showing just how each step is accomplished, I started collecting pictures and writing copy several years before publication of this book. I present this book to you in the hopes that it will enable you to start out on a firm foundation of beekeeping without having to call on anyone for additional information.

Included also is a chapter on packing and marketing your honey crop as you should be able to produce much more honey than your family can use and it is important that you develop your local market if this is to be a paying proposition as we both hope it will be.

Front Cover Picture

Many small, well kept, home bee yards, such as pictured on the front cover, pay the taxes or are the main source of income for their owners. Beekeeping is a business that does not require daily attention and one which works in well with the short factory work week.

Strive to become a master beekeeper like Charles J. Zellner, Green Bay, Wisconsin, pictured at left. For years this man has operated 600 colonies, doing all of the work himself, averaging from 200 to 300 pounds of surplus honey in the good years. Not all locations are as good as the Green Bay area but most locations can be greatly improved by beekeepers sowing sweet clover seed along the road sides, railroad tracks and other waste places.