ILJJNOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



105 



work on. The basis for marketing 

 honey would rest first upon the 

 amount of the crop in your own com- 

 munity, or, for convenience, will say 

 your county. To know the yield per 

 colony is not enough. We must go 

 further. We must know the yield per 

 colony and we must know the num- 

 ber of bee-keepers in our county. We 

 must know the number of colonies 

 each owns. We must know the ap- 

 proximate number of colonies run for 

 comb and extracted honey. We must 

 know how many of these bee-keepers 

 are specialists, and how many colonies 

 do they represent. By specialists is 

 meant such bee-keepers who depend 

 upon the bees as the main source of 

 income. How many are not specialists 

 but are up to date in their methods, 

 and how many colonies they represent. 

 How many are just bee owners, and 

 how many colonies do they represent. 



We must know how all of these dis- 

 pose of their crops, the prices asked, 

 and the kind of packages used, et cet- 

 era. 



We must also know the poula- 

 tion of our county, the number and 

 size of villages and cities, the amount 

 of honey shipped in or otherwise 

 brought into the county and how put 

 up. 



As an illustration and for conveni- 

 ence, the figures and results of "Out- 

 agamie County, Wisconsin," may be 

 interesting to you. 



Outagamie County, Wisconsin. 

 Area — 634 square miles. 

 Population — 50,000. 



Five cities. Population of each: 

 One, 17,000; one, 5,000; one, 1,500; one, 

 1,000; one, 500. Total 25,000. This 

 equals one-half of the population in 

 the county. '^ ■ 



There are five bee-keepers in the 

 county who might be called specia- 

 lists; that is, bees are the main source 

 of income. They represent about 800 

 colonies. One sells most of his honey 

 wholesale, and lives seven miles from 

 our place. One sells all of his honey 

 by canvassing the country and does 

 not go more than eight miles from his 

 home ; this does not include any city ; 

 his honey is put up in earthenware 

 jars; empties exchanged at ten cents 

 net; he lives twenty miles from our 

 place. One lives fifteen miles away 

 and retails most of his in another di- 

 rection; he also sells his honey in tin 

 pails, et cetera. 



AH of these produce mostly extract- 

 ed honey. ; 



There are about twenty in the coun- 

 ty that own from 20 to 60 colonies and 

 represent about 1,000 colonies; several 

 of these produce mostly comb honey 

 and most of it is shipped out of the 

 county. The balance sell their honey 

 in every way, shape and manner. Sev- 

 eral of them sell extracted honey at 

 eight cents per pound and comb honey 

 at twelve cents per pound. About 

 sixty bee-keepers have only a few 

 colonies each and represent about 500 

 colonies. This would be a total of 

 eighty-five bee-keepers in this county; 

 they represent about 2,300 colonies. 



Under these conditions, two differ- 

 ent seasons we asked 12 cents per 

 pound for extracted honey in tin pails 

 by advertising, et cetera. We failed to 

 get or hold much trade but this was 

 early in the season when all other 

 bee-keepers had honey to sell at the 

 prices already mentioned. In further 

 analyzing our failure to get a higher 

 price for our honey even supposing the 

 quality was better than the average. 



It seems there were not enough peo- 

 ple who could or would pay more for 

 honey, especially as long as they could 

 get it elsewhere for less money. As 

 the smaller cities consist mostly of 

 retired farmers, and, broadly speaking, 

 most of them have friends and rela-. 

 tives in the country who have bees 

 and supply them with honey annually. 

 The per cent of people that may be 

 classed as rich, wealthy or well to do 

 is so small that to work up a trade 

 for high priced honey would require 

 more time,' energy and money than 

 would be worth while ; that is, the first 

 cost would be too great for any indi- 

 vidual bee-keeper to attempt it any 

 place outside of large cities. 



As there are approximately 2,300 

 colonies of bees in the county and we 

 will assume that the average crop was 

 fifty pounds per colony and is about 

 the average yield one year with 

 another. 



This would be 115,000 pounds 

 of honey or 2.3 pounds of honey 

 for each of the 50,000 -population in 

 the county; same to be consumed in 

 365 days or one year; if no honey was 

 shipped into or out of the county; as 

 near as can be estimated as much 

 honey is shipped into the county as 

 out. 



Practically all the honey put up in 



