86 



SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPOET OF THE 



look very far, this year, to find bee-keepers 

 selling honey at teiT cents a pound. I have 

 heard of several cases. Michigan and Wis- 

 consin both sel] it at fifteen cents, retail, in 

 ten pound pails. 



A Member — That was done in Cook 

 County, last year. 



The Secretary — Yes. 



Mr. Stewart. — What i^ou going to do 

 with those fellows around in the countrj-, 

 with a few hives of bees, that sell it for 

 five cents a pound less than you do — 

 kill them? 



The Secretary — You can send a price 

 letter from the committee. 



Mr. Stewart — They wouldn't care a 

 "cuss" for them. 



Mr. Dadant — I think that the circulars 

 sent out by the U. S. Government has a 

 very good effect, has very good points in 

 it. If thej"^ give a man the wholesale 

 price, it seems to me any man with any 

 kind of sense will not sell under the whole- 

 sale price given by the Government. 

 Usually the man who drops his honey on 

 the market sells it wholesale. He may 

 have only a hundred pounds, but he whole- 

 sales it. I think that is the man you fear 

 the most. A small bee-keeper will bring 

 his honey to town and whatever price the 

 grocer gives him he takes. If that man 

 can get a circular from the Government 

 and see that honey is selling for fifteen 

 cents wholesale, he will be inclined to refuse 

 to sell for less than that, and it certainly 

 will help a bit, and I think we ought to do 

 all we can to get that list in the hands of 

 every bee-keeper. 



The President — That is what I say. 



The Secretary — That is the way to do it. 



The President — One difficulty we have 

 is the fact that so many retail their honey 

 at wholesale prices. They read in the 

 Government list that honey is worth fifteen 

 cents, they immediately go around town 

 and peddle it, delivered in one-pound lots, 

 at fifteen cents, and if they can't dispose 

 of it readily, they sell if for even less than 

 that. There was a lady over in our town, 

 who was advertising honey^ a year ago, 

 comb honey, delivered, for fifteen cents a 

 pound. I tried to buy the whole lot, and 

 she wouldn't sell it to me at fifteen cents, 

 she wanted more. 



A Member — She liked to deliver it. 



The President — She is just one instance, 

 and there are hundreds of people who will 

 sell at retail and deliver in five pound lots 

 at less than the wholesale price. 



Mr. Haan — Mr. President, I bumped up 

 against several snags in selling honey, and 

 I find that one of the snags is Sears-Roe- 

 buck & Company. When I came around 



with my honey last year, at twenty cents 

 a pound, they said, "Oh, I got you beat." 

 I said, "Where do you get your honey"? 

 " Sears-Roebuck. " " What do you pay for 

 it?" They didn't tell me what they paid 

 for it, but they got it a little cheaper than 

 I could sell it for. At another place there 

 was a man from Wisconsin who sold, I be- 

 lieve, at twenty cents a pound, last year, 

 selling at retail, and this fellow came around 

 and says, " Oh, I can do a lot better than 

 that. I can get it delivered at twelve cents 

 a pound, by parcel post, from Wisconsin." 

 And he didn't give me any address, either, 

 but he said he could get it from there last 

 year, when I was selling it at twenty cents. 



Those are some of the snags we run up 

 against when we go around trying to sell 

 honey. Those people up there when they 

 know what honey is bringing down here, 

 I don't suppose for a minute that they 

 would sell their honey down here, for any 

 such price as that, but nevertheless we 

 have to contend with it until they do get 

 those price lists. 



At this point a motion was made and 

 carried to join the State Association in a 

 body. 



The President — The question is asked 

 how can we get sugar for spring feeding? 



Mr. Stewart — Buy it (laughter). 



Mr. Kanneberg — You can't buy it. 



The Secretary — That is easy. It is ac- 

 cording to how big a town you are in, but 

 go to each store when you go down town, 

 and buy all you can get and hoard it up. 

 You can buy two pounds at a time. If 

 you buy two pounds a daj^ from now until 

 spring, you will have enough. 



The President — It is a question whether 

 it pays to buy sugar and feed bees at this 

 time of the year. Wouldn't it be cheaper 

 to wait till spring and get your bees from 

 the south, and be patriotic and not use 

 the sugar? 



I have one more question here. "When 

 you have a lot with about ten to twenty- 

 "five colonies of bees, and one happens to 

 swarm without your seeing it, I would 

 like to know which is the quickest and 

 surest way to find out what colony the 

 swarm came from ? ' ' The gentleman would 

 like to know how to tell when a colony has 

 swarmed. 



The Secretary^ — Mr. President, it de- 

 pends on how soon afterwards you get 

 there. If you get to that yard within ten 

 or fifteen minutes after they have swarmed, 

 look in front of all the hives. In a swarm 

 all kinds of bees go out, and a good many 

 bees go out of that swarm that can't fly 

 yet. You will find them crawling on the 

 grass. After they have been out an hour 



