November, 1913. 



373 



American Vee Journal 



^^^^ I 



the next morning a strong colony will 

 have cleaned up a lot of the combs, 

 and if the work is not all completed 

 the bees will be so prepared that they 

 can repel any onslaught of robber 

 bees. November is too late for this 

 cleaning up work e.xcept in some of 



M. W. Harvey Looking eok a Queen. 



our near southern States. 



Here in Colorado we quite often 

 have weather in November when such 

 work can be done, but September and 

 October should see most of the e.x- 

 tracting work out of the way. 



Southern 



Beedom- 



Conducted bv Louis H. Scholl. New BraunCels. Tex. 



Texas Honey Crop Conditions and Marlt- 

 eting 



The great Lone Star State has had 

 an unusual year. The spring prospects 

 were very promising, and beekeepers 

 everywhere were jubilant. A little 

 later, weather conditions turned any- 

 thing but favorable for the best wel- 

 fare of the bees, and as a consequence 

 the colonies were in a weaker condi- 

 tion by the end of April than four or 

 five weeks previous. The long drawn- 

 out cold spring weather not only ef- 

 fected the bees but the honey yielding 



and pollen bearing vegetation as well. 

 For this reason the early spring honey 

 crops were a failure except in a few 

 localities where light crops were ob- 

 tained. Generally speaking, however, 

 there was no Texas spring honey crop 

 this year. 



SUMMER CROr WITH A RUSH. 



The early summer crops came at 

 about the same time in most of the 

 southwest Texas localities, resulting 

 in a rush of honey to market a little 

 later in the summer that caused a 

 s.ump in the market. This is a thing 



that we have not experinced as long as 

 I can remember. Tbere was no spring 

 crop to fill a demand that existed, and 

 the early summer crop brought good 

 prices. But when the later summer 

 crops came with a rush everybody 

 wanted to sell, and, as a consequence, 

 it appeared that the country was flood- 

 ed with honey. This was felt not only 

 bv the buyers but the beekeepers as 

 well. 



CUTTING PRICES HARMFUL. 



The result was that some of the anx- 

 ious beekeepers cut prices in order to 

 get their honey ofif their hands. Other 

 beekeepers were compelled to sell 

 their honey in order to pay debts, 

 while still others feared granulation of 

 their product before being able to dis- 

 pose of it. This was bad for the better 

 beekeepers who held their honey and 

 desired to maintain a consistent mar- 

 ket price. The buyers became aware 

 of the fact that some beekeepers were 

 making a lower price and took advan- 

 tage of it. Whenever honey is offered 

 anywhere in the market at a low price, 

 it has a tendency to establish a lower 

 price for the entire honey market. 



BUYERS FEAR BUYING. 



Under these conditions the buyers 

 fear placing their contracts for honey, 

 because they fear that others may buy 

 at a lower figure. Such deals might 

 mean a big loss. Consequently they 

 prefer not to have anything to do with 

 honey. At a staple price these large 

 wholesale dealers are in splendid posi- 

 tion to distribute large quantities of 

 honey. They have their own traveling 

 men who cover the territory well, and 

 this enables them to sell to a great 

 number of retail dealers over the coun- 

 try. Of course, they must figure on 

 just so much profit over the price paid 

 the beekeepers or they cannot afford 

 to handle it. 



A great deal of honey was sold early 

 in the summer at a very fair price. But 

 for the above reasons this fair price 

 would have continued, I believe, and 

 there would have been a much more 

 steady sale of honey throughout the 

 later summer months and in the fall. 

 There is no reason why there should 

 have been a slump in the Texas honey 

 market this year, and very little rea- 

 son why the price should have come 

 down on an average of 1 to \% cents 

 per pound. The quantity produced did 

 not warrant it. 



MANY SMALL BEEKEEPERS UNFAIR. 



The worst evil in the honey market 

 seems to be the small beekeeper who 

 insists on selling his honey direct to 

 retailers at exactly the same price, if 

 not a lower one, than that being paid 

 by the wholesale buyers. The price to 

 the retail trade should be correspond- 

 ingly higher than the wholesale price, 

 if the beekeeper wishes to sell some of 

 his honey direct to the retailers. Very 

 few do this. Our own experience in 

 selling much honey direct is that many 

 beekeepers quote a lower price to our 

 own customers very often, and the re- 

 sult is that we are asked to meet that 

 lower price. The same occurs with the 

 large dealers. It is difficult for these 

 to meet a lower price when they hav? 



