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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 15 



Bee-keeping in the South- 

 west 



By LOUIS SCHOLL, New Braunfels, Texas 



TWO EXTREMES. 



There's such a thing as having things at 

 extremes in one's apiary work. The writer 

 may claim such to exist in his own, in that 

 one of his assistants hails from far-oflf Can- 

 ada while the other is a real Mexican. Both 

 have been hard workers so far. The strang- 

 est part about them, however, is that the 

 Canadian likes our hot weather while the 

 Mexican does not. 



THE TEXAS HONEY CROP. 



Although the Texas crojo is a short one 

 this year, it is a safe guess that there is more 

 than half a crop, taking into consideration 

 the entire State. Many localities have been 

 favored with a good crop, while others have 

 fallen short of the average, and still others 

 have had less than even half a crop. As a 

 whole, however, the bee-keepers can not 

 complain. The good prices received will 

 aid quite a little in making up for the short- 

 age. 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



Albany, N. Y., is the place of the Nation- 

 Bee-keepers' convention this year, which 

 will be held Oct. 12 and 13. From the no- 

 tices that have appeared, the prospects are 

 good for a big old-time bee-keepers' meet- 

 ing. The "carload of bee-keepers " idea is 

 a good one, and it is hoped there will be 

 several of them en route to the convention 

 this year. The prospects for a carload from 

 Chicago to Albany are bright, and all those 

 who can join this from the West should 

 take advantage of the opportunity. Let us 

 all hope that this will be one of the best 

 meetings the National has had. 

 -^ 



KEEPING MORE BEES. 



Specialty is the order of the day to such 

 an extent nowadays that it is not unusual 

 for a great many bee-keepers to fall more 

 and more in line with this trend toward sjie- 

 cialism. Editor Hutchinson, of the Revieiv, 

 has advocated this matter to a great extent, 

 and it has been bearing fruit. His " keep 

 more bees" has been heard far and wide, 

 and is in many a bee-keeper's mouth. The 

 writer, although working along those very 

 lines years ago, before he read the Review, 

 has known of the value of specializing in 

 certain lines of work. It enables one to ac- 

 complish more with little more exj^ense, 

 bringing in greater returns with a larger 

 profit. But it takes a man with business 

 get-up to do it. Then it takes a location 

 that will allow it; then a system of manage- 

 ment, and the right kind of hives and ap- 

 pliances must be adopted. Some special ar- 

 ticles on the latter would be interesting to 

 some of us. 



SELLING YOUR OWN CROP. 



In one respect our Texas bee-keepers are 

 ahead of their brothers up north. Instead 

 of selling to commission men, as is, appar- 

 ently, the more general custom in the 

 North, the majority of our extensive bee- 

 keepers sell direct to the retailer or to the 

 consumer. In this way they cut out the 

 middlemen's profit, and this means that 

 this profit goes into their own pocket. Many 

 of our smaller bee-keepers sell all their hon- 

 ey in this way, while a good many others 

 sell to wholesale dealers from whom they 

 get from j/i to lyi cts. per lb. less than if 

 they sold direct. These latter are men 

 who, in the first place, claim that they are 

 not adapted for selling honey themselves, 

 or else that they do not know how. There 

 is still another class of producers who prefer 

 to sell their entire crop in this way, claim- 

 ing that they can do better to let the whole- 

 saler do the selling for the difference in the 

 price; but the time is here when more and 

 more are selling direct and at a good price. 



HAVE HONEY PRICES ADVANCED.' 



In my old account-book I have found 

 some figures that have made me think this 

 matter over seriously. .Just fifteen years 

 ago our crop was something like 3000 lbs., 

 of which about one-third was section honey 

 and the rest extracted. The sections were 

 sold at an average price of 8^ cts. each, 

 while the extracted was sold in the home 

 market as far as possible, and at the ridicu- 

 lously low price of 60 cts. a gallon, or 5 cts. 

 per lb. There was so little demand for ex- 

 tracted honey in the markets that we could 

 not ship it out; but not being able to sell all 

 of it in the home market the rest was final- 

 ly shipped off for o% cts. per lb. It was 

 amber honey, but fine in quality. Gradu- 

 ally the price went up to 5 cts. for extracted 

 honey and 9 for section. Later on, section 

 honey was quoted at 11 cts. per lb.; but 

 about this time bulk comb honey came in 

 and very soon took the place of the section 

 honey. It was first sold at an average price 

 of 6>^cts., while the extracted brought 5 in 

 a limited market. From this time the 

 prices of the two kinds of honey have gone 

 up from X to X ct. a year. Several years 

 ago the reigning prices were 8 cts. for bulk 

 comb and 6 for extracted. This difference 

 of 2 cts. per lb. between the two kinds was 

 established and will remain. To-day 10 cts. 

 is the average price for bulk comb honey, 

 and 8 for extracted. Some who sell direct 

 are realizing even better than this. 



Taking it all in all, we in Texas can safe- 

 ly say that the prices of honey have kept 

 pace wuth other articles of food. The prices 

 mentioned above are for the honey f. o. b. 

 at the bee-keeper's shipping-point, in a 

 wholesale way. The dealer has to pay the 

 freight, add his commission, and then 

 make a profit when selling to his customers. 

 In the retail market our bulk comb honey 

 brings 15 to 18 cts. per lb. at the present 

 time. 



