S62 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



queens were reared and some more 

 increase made by taking fram.es of bees 

 and brood from the most populous 

 colonies. 



THE SURPLUS AND INCREASE SECURED. 



At the close of the season my 40 

 colonies had been increased to 95, and 

 3.000 pounds of honey extracted, and 

 this during a season when many bee 



keepers did not secure half a crop, and 

 some not any, because they allowed their 

 colonies to run down during the long 

 cold spell in April and May. You see it 

 is possible to secure a good crop of honey, 

 by proper management and attention, in 

 a season when, if left to themselves, bees 

 would store no surplus. 



Flint. Mich., Nov. 8, 1910. 



Organization and the Advertising of a Special 

 Brand Would Raise Prices. 



W. J. LEWIS. 



^-M-^E have carefully read your edito- 

 \ I # '''^' '" ^^^ '^''■^ Review on the 

 ^^^ subject of "Selling the Honey Crop 

 to the Best Advantage." 



The keeping of bees is a side line or 

 rather a hobby with us, but we have 

 learned that it is a harder matter to get 

 what we consider a fair price for our 

 honey than it is to produce it. We have 

 devoted considerable time and endeavor 

 to learn why honey does not bring a 

 better price, and our decision is that it is 

 largely the fault of the producers that 

 they do not receive more for their 

 product. You fairly express our view 

 of the subject when you say "the indiffer- 

 ence exhibited by some of our producers 

 in disposing of their honey is certainly 

 exasperating," only we would apply this 

 to nearly the whole bee keeping fraternity 

 instead of "some producers." 



MARKETING SELDOM DISCUSSED AT 

 CONVENTIONS. 



We received and read carefully reports 

 of the convention of the National Bee 

 Keepers' Association. If there is any 

 thing in the last report of any discussion 

 on how to obtain a better price for honey, 

 we fail to recollect of reading it. Much 

 is said on how to produce big crops, keep 

 •down and eliminate disease, manipulate 

 hives, keep down swarming, etc., in 



short, everything imaginable is done to 

 get as much out of faithful little workers 

 as possible, but nothing as to how to get 

 a fair price for the valuable food they 

 produce. We have never attended an 

 annual meeting. We have wished to do 

 so for the past four years, but something 

 always happened to prevent our attend- 

 ing, but one thing is certain, when we do 

 attend, that meeting will not pass 

 without a word on the subject. 



We read the reports of the convention 

 of the producers of a certain line of 

 manufactured goods. The subject of 

 how and where to place their goods 

 and how they should be advertised and 

 sold so as to bring the greatest price, is 

 created at length, but nothing of this 

 kind ever seems to have been taken up 

 by the National Association of Bee 

 Keepers. 



Forty years ago we remember of see- 

 ing a country store keeper shoveling 

 butter from a lot of old tubs into barrels 

 in order to ship it to market. Good and 

 bad went into the same barrel, and by 

 the time much of it reached the city 

 market it was consigned to the soap 

 factories. How different now. Si.ngle 

 pound packages, put up in tight, germ- 

 proof wrappers, advertised and sold 

 under a certain brand which is extensive- 



