1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



54' 



Bee-keeping Among The 

 Rockies 



By Wesley Foster. Boulder, Colo. 



MORE GRADES OF HONEY. 



The trend of the market demand seems 

 to be for more grades in fruit. Most of the 

 fruit associations are adopting this method 

 of packing. I will not discuss whether it 

 is the best way. The way the customers 

 want the fruit put up is the determining 

 factor here. If they will pay more for fruit 

 l»ut up in boxes all of even size and color, 

 that is what we shall have to furnish them 

 if we want the top price. The same thing 

 is true of honey. The grocer wants 24-lb. 

 boxes of honey as near alike in color, filling, 

 and weight as a like number of boxes of 

 breakfast food: and if we can supply him 

 with this kind of honey we shall get the top 

 prices. Four dollars per case of 24 sections 

 can be had in Denver for this kind of honey 

 throughout the year. 

 -^ 



THE HOXEY CROP. 



Another failure will ha\ e to be recorded 

 for Northern Colorado. Dry weather and 

 grasshoi)pers seem to be the principal causes. 

 The bees will average but four or five pounds 

 of honey in the hives at this date, August 

 4. We are going to feed most of our colo- 

 nies, and this will give them a good start to 

 keep up their strength during the winter. 

 This is the first season when not a single 

 colony entered a super, and we did not i)ut 

 over sixty or seventy on the best hives 

 that we thought might work in them should 

 the flowers furnish nectar. Fully one-third 

 of the hives have lost steadily in bees dur- 

 ing the summer. The lack of a honey-flow 

 seems to tell on the colonies, though there 

 has been a little more than a living for the 

 colonies of fair strength. The weaker ones 

 have a hard time to kee]i any show of even 

 unsealed honey in their combs. Perhaps a 

 hundred out of our nine hundred have no 

 sealed honey in the brood-nest, and, of 

 course, nowhere else, as that is all they have 

 to store in. 



The Arkansas Valley re])orts some sur- 

 l)lus, and the western slope is getting a good 

 crop, as also are Utah and Idaho. Here in 

 Northern Colorado we • have just a little 

 more than our share of failures — three out 

 of four is our record for the last four years. 

 But generally the bees have had enough to 

 winter, but not so this season. 

 ^^ 



SHIPPING HONEY. 



I agree with Mr. Crane. ]nige 44o, when 

 he says that express shipments are more 

 liable to breakage than freight. Express 

 packages are handled on end, sidewise, or 

 bottom side up. Then express rates are ex- 

 cessive, and in many ])laces prohibitive. 

 We who favor parcels post look with no 

 too kindly feeling toward the high express 

 rates that are charged, and then when the 



shipments are badly broken the companies 

 very rarely allow any claims for breakage. 

 How many damage claims do you know of 

 that the express comi)anies have paid ? I 

 have yet to hear of the first one." 



Yes, Mr. Crane, there is considerable 

 breakage in freight shipments of comb hon- 

 ey out this way, but mainly when the cases 

 are not crated at all. Agood many ship 

 honey this way; but as the breakage con- 

 tinues the i)r"actice will stop before long. 

 There is little trouble, if any, when the 

 cases are crated 150 or 200 lbs.' to the crate 

 and packed in straw. Speaking of ship- 

 ping comb honey in glass-front cases with- 

 out crating, I have noticed that it ships 

 better to leave the glass fronts exposed; for 

 when the glass is covered the freight-han- 

 dlers do not know which is right side up, 

 and are led to think that it makes no differ- 

 ence. Certainly if six or eight cases crated 

 and packed in straw would not ship with- 

 out breakage, the 25-case crate of Mr. Crane's 

 would make it difficult for the freight-han- 

 dlers to get the honey upside down. 



HONEY FRAUDS AND COMMISSION MEN. 



Those of us who have been favored ^ith 

 some surplus honey to sell are now looking 

 around for a market for our honey. The 

 dishonest commission man is also looking 

 strenuously these days for easy marks. He 

 cares little about the markets. He can 

 quote the market what he wants to, for these 

 fellows always have some exclusive cus- 

 tomer to whom they can sell what we send 

 to them at far above the market quotations 

 — that is, they say they can in their circu- 

 lars and post-card bogus quotations which 

 are not quotations at all. but just juicy- 

 looking baits to get us trustful creatures to 

 send them our honey. I believe the larger 

 commission men are reliable, and make 

 prompt remittances; but many of them do 

 not solicit commission deals. They buy 

 outright. These shysters i)romise the big 

 plums: and then if they get them they keep 

 them for themselves. One of the most com- 

 mon practices among the commission men 

 of average integrity is to send a lot of honey 

 to another commission house to help sell 

 out the lot if the sale is slow. They will 

 take out two commissions of, say, ten per 

 cent each, besides freight and drayage. This 

 I do not consider honest, though it is prac- 

 ticed by quite a few. The Denver market 

 receives honey in sixty-pound cans, and it 

 soon candies.' The commission man tries 

 to sell these to the grocers; and as they can 

 buy bottled honey that is attractive and 

 will remain liquid for some time, the sixty- 

 pound cans go begging. This is why some 

 of the honest commission houses can not 

 make satisfactory returns. The shyster, of 

 course, will not "make satisfactory returns 

 any way. The rule for all of us is to know 

 the market, and then produce an article 

 that will be in quick demand in that mar- 

 ket. Then we must know whom to market 

 our honey through, and be able to tell a 

 shyster by his promises. 



