?Hello All,
Bee Culture published the interview in 1992 nineteen  years ago. Kim Flottum ( editor Bee Culture)was kind enough to spend the time to pull up the page the article talks about the number of hives/ employee.  I have an excellent memory as does Kim (did the interview) but we both were off on the number Richard gave.
I will forward the page to those interested if you email me direct. 
The quote from the article:
"The operation is designed to keep the number of colonies each yard person works at about 1500, but adding support staff the number drops to about 1250 per employee"

The large Richard Adee quote from the page:
"To make honey you have to know bees, and everything we do , we do to make honey"

Many of us felt back in 1992 that the Adee operation was years behind what the rest of the industry was doing but the methods of going south to Mississippi and rebuilding and then back to North Dakota to produce honey was the engine which fueled the Adee success.

"If it isn't broke don't fix it"

The Bell operation which was larger at various times concentrated on doing the opposite of most operations and going in whatever direction money could be made. The price of honey climbs and the operation was quickly geared up for honey production. A need for hives in almonds two decades ago and 17 semi loads were sent. A shortage of package bees and the operation produced tens of thousands of packages. 

The Bell operation *was* the largest presence in South Dakota for decades and the Adee operation the largest presence in North Dakota as it has been for decades.

The size of these two operations has been the largest the world has ever seen and today the trend is for smaller operations so I doubt a new operator will ever rise to the hive numbers these two have operated.
Bob Adee told me in a personal conversation two years ago the the Adee operation (now ran in the field by Richards two sons with help by Richard and his brother bob) had around 88 thousand hives on the ground and that year.

When the Bell operation closed the doors due to owner retiring (to run 20,000 plus hives for sale each year)
Horace Bell said he sold 97,000 hives plus support equipment.

I am fortunate to have been around since the start of the operations by these two beekeeping legends.
Richard running around 500 hives while in college and Horace Bell running 8000 hives by the time he graduated high school. 

I have said before on BEE-L but will say again for new members:
Horace Bell and I grew up together. Hunted and fished Florida. We rode back and forth together to high school in a green 1957 Chevy pickup (when what was considered cool was a 1957 Chevy convertible) . We both were members of the DeLand, Florida Future Farmers of America. Horace was sent to Kansas City to represent our chapter at the national convention

We worked nights building hives at the FFA wood working shop and bought out other beekeeping operations together. We have remained close friends through out the years.

Both of us dislike the spot light turned on us and prefer to keep a low profile. I advise many beekeepers and was up late last night on the phone with two commercial beekeepers. Horace is hard to get to speak with directly. Richard Adee (in my opinion) loves the spotlight and has done the most for the industry over the years than any other beekeeper in the history of beekeeping. Without Richard pushing for congress to help the industry when we were in *hard times* many of us might not be in business today. Myself included! 

Beekeeping history not found in books.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Missouri 

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