By John Paul Lucas
Raleigh, May 16—“Enough free nectar goes to waste in North Carolina each year to produce honey enough to replace the sugar required by several times our population.” This estimate of the beekeeping possibilities of North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service, who is largely responsible for the tremendous strides North Carolina has been making recently in beekeeping. North Carolina ranks fourth among beekeeping states of the Union, being exceeded only by Texas, California and Tennessee. And she is still going strong.
I had been warned before talking with Mr. Sams that if I submitted myself to half hour’s conversation with him I would develop an irresistible impulse to start keeping bees. I rather agreed with Mr. Sams’ declaration, however, that a Live-at-Home campaign should properly include some sort of a drive in the interest of the bee industry, so I decided to risk an interview.
Accomplishments and Possibilities
“There are approximately 193,000 colonies of bees in North Carolina at the present time,” declared Mr. Sams. “The State would support several times that number and a ready market could be found for all the honey produced. In fact, notwithstanding North Carolina’s high rank as a bee State, honey in car lots has been imported within the past year into Charlotte, Asheville and other North Carolina cities. This honey came from Texas and Tennessee. The normal production of honey in North Carolina with the present number of hives is nearly 7,000,000 pounds a year. We could produce more than 10 times this quantity. The average production in North Carolina last year was about 28 pounds per hive and lat year was the poorest honey year in more than a decade.
“The normal average production is about 35 pounds per colony. The average would be much higher but for the large number of beekeepers who are still using the old type box and gum hives, sometime ago we made a survey and ascertained that the average production in this type of hive was only 9 ½ pounds per year, as compared with several times that figure for improved hives. With the proper sort of management and care, with modern equipment the average production should not be less than 60 pounds per colony. This average would give us this year approximately 12,000,000 pounds of honey instead of 7,000,000 pounds or so, which we will probably produce. Many beekeepers in the coastal plains and in the mountain section average more than 75 pounds per colony year in and year out. The opportunities for large production is not so great in the Piedmont center sections of the State but many of our best beekeepers are in these sections.
Easy As Raising Chicken
“Any one who has sufficient intelligence to successfully raise poultry and hogs can make a success of beekeeping. The successful beekeeper studies his hob and gives the proper attention to his apiary, but very little time is required for the work necessary in an apiary. The small mount of labor, the equipment and the foundation stock constitute the entire investment necessary for the production of honey. No crops are grown and no land is used except the land actually occupied by the hive. The bees gather the honey from afield and they render a distinct and necessary service to nature while they work, aside from the honey which they produce.”
According to Mr. Sams, it costs about $10 per colony for equipment and stock to build up a real first class apiary. The size of an apiary, by careful management, may be increased quite rapidly. The number of colonies can be doubled each year without any considerable sacrifice of production. By sacrificing production, a much more rapid increase can be secured.
Mr. Sams strongly advises beginners to purchase their foundation stock of bees in their own locality in order to avoid brining into the State “foulbrood,” a dangerous disease which is prevalent in some sections. If the original stock is the ordinary black bees, purebred Italian queens should be purchased in order to improve the stock. The Italian bees are gentler, more productive and hardier than the ordinary black bees. When one considers the fact that a queen lays from 2,000 to 3,000 eggs a day and a total of 80 to 100,000 or more during a season, eh will readily see tha the matter of “”breeding up” stock is simple and easy.
Beekeepers Make Profits
There are a large number of men and women in North Carolina who make beekeeping their sole occupation. Mr. Elton Warner of Asheville, president of the North Carolina Beekeepers’ Association, is one of the largest beekeepers in America. During one recent year he sold more than $35,000 worth of honey. He has colonies located both in the mountains and in the coastal plains. In addition he has approximately 1,000 colonies in Porto Rica.
Dr. E.E. Kirkman, formerly health officer of Martin County, last year averaged 315 pounds surplus for 100 colonies for his Spring flow. After the Spring honey flow was over, Dr. Kirkham moved 40 colonies to the soy bean section near Terra Cei, 20 miles distant from his home. These 40 colonies produced an average surplus of 117 pounds during the soy bean blooming season, making an average for the entire year of 252 pounds each for these colonies. Figures at 25 cents per pound, these colonies produced more than $80 worth of honey each, during the season.
One of the best known beekeepers in North Carolina is W.J. Martin, who was for years Raleigh correspondent for a number of papers in the State. Martin risked an interview with Apiculturist Sams on one occasion several years ago and shortly thereafter began his bee career with one colony. Later he paid 75 cents for a stray swarm from which during that season he produced $14 worth of honey. When Martin left Raleigh and went to Wilmington to devote his entire time to apiculture, he purchased 132 hives from an eastern beekeeper, transferred them to modern hives and was on his way. He produced more than $2,000 worth of honey the first year, this amount more than covering his entire investment in bees, equipment and supplies. Martin has 300 hives at present and his income from honey will be several thousand dollars. He is so infatuated with the game that he recently declared that he would trade his bee business for a newspaper.
Women Make Good
One North Carolina woman, a widow, raised and educated her family with her income produced solely by beekeeping.
Mrs. Chas. Robinson of Martin county teaches school during the school term but her income from 35 colonies of bees last year was more than her salary for the school term.
Mrs. J.M. Edmonsin is the wife of an automobile mechanic at Everetts. She has 115 colonies of bees and makes more money than her husband does.
C.D. Duval, a former resident of Idaho, is now a beekeeper in Martin county, having one-half interest in 500 colonies. He and his partner have 250 colonies in one apiary at Wiliamston which averaged last year over 35 pounds of comb honey. The yield of comb honey is nothing like as great as the yield where the honey is extracted and the foundation replaced in the hives, because the making of the wax is a tedious process for the bees and much time is lost which is devoted to the production of honey where wax foundations are supplied.
Mr. R.D. Carr of Magnolia declared that during the past 35 years there have been only three years when there has been anything like a failure of the honey yield. He figures three good years and two medium years in each five. He declares that more profit can e secured from 300 colonies of bees than from 160 acres of cultivated land.
Breeding of Bees and Queen Profitable
A number of beekeepers in North Carolina have gone into the business of breeding bees and queens for market, and they are doing a thriving business. The are not only supplying foundation stock and purebred queens and beekeepers in North Carolina but are doing considerable business in pound packages of bees with beekeepers in the north. Many beekeepers in the north who have colonies that have wintered poorly or are naturally weak strengthened them early in the Spring with a pond or two of bees purchased elsewhere. These bees enable the colony to build up very rapidly for the honey season. These breeders of bees and queens do not attempt to produce any surplus honey, directing all the energy and efforts of their colonies to the production of bees and queens.
The North Carolina Beekeepers’ Association, with a membership at present of more than 140 apiculturists, is doing much to promote the bee industry in the State and its efforts, together with those of Mr. Sams and a number of county farm demonstration agents who have become interested in bees, are responsible for a very rapid development which is taking place in the industry at the present time. In all probability, it will be very few years before the honey production in North Carolina reaches 50,000,000 pounds a year—and the industry will e developed to the extent of not more than 50 per cent of its theoretical possibilities then.
From the front page of the Lincoln County News, Lincolnton, N.C., May 22, 1922. Puerto Rico was spelled Porto Rica in 1922. As a basis for comparison, $1,000 in 1922 would be the equivalent of $17,023 in 2022.
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