GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



OCTOBEE, 1918 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



we have to look to the expense, and my 

 greatest objection to the windbreak for the 

 bee yard is its cost. By adding three inches 

 of packing space to the five inclies, I believe 

 I can quite largely make up for the lack of 

 a windbreak, especially in this western 

 county where it almost always warms up 

 when the wind begins to blow. 



One very great advantage of the packing 

 ease that I have not mentioned is the satis- 

 faction the beekeeper derives from the 

 knowledge that his bees are packed away 

 snugly where there is practically no danger 

 from losing any of his colonies. 



Boulder, Col. Wesley Foster. 



[If the beekeepers of Colorado will follow 

 the suggestions given by Mr. Foster in this 

 article, they will not only save winter stores 

 but have much stronger colonies in the 

 spring. A fair trial will convince any can- 

 did mind. The only criticism we might have 

 to offer is that more importance should be 

 attached to windbreaks or shelter. There 

 should be no shelf or ledge under the en- 

 trance to catch snow or ice to clog it. 



The scheme of having one entrance on 

 each of the four sides is better in our opin- 

 ion than having two entrances on each of 

 two sides. The former will avoid drifting. 

 See next issue. — Editor.] 



THE ETERNAL PRICE QUESTION 



How the Small. Honey Producer Helps to Keep the 

 Price Down. What the Price Should be 



I ask myself the question and repeat it to 

 my brother beekeepers: Supposing the 

 wholesale price of honey to be 15 cents, 

 why peddle it out at 12% to 16 cents? 

 Five one-gallon cans will cost more than 

 one 60-pound can, and 10 six-pound cans, 

 more than five one-gallon cans. A wooden 

 keg will cost less than tin cans, and a bar- 

 rel less than several 200-pound kegs. 



It is all right to "look after our old cus- 

 tomers," but yearly advertising is new ad- 

 vertising. I mean by tliat, unless you run 

 an advertisement all the time, you have 

 to look for new customers yearly. Not ten 

 per cent of your "old customers" will re- 

 member you. Obviously it will not pay us 

 to run an advertisement when we have no 

 honey to sell, and it will not pay one man 

 in a hundred to try to keep up a mail order 

 business.' Therefore, if we cannot get as 

 good prices at retail, locally, as we can 

 from the buyers, we certainly are foolish to 

 lose one to three cents a pound by continu- 

 ing our retail trade. 



Prices depend on location — local retail 

 prices, I mean. I am in a town of 100, and 

 cannot expect to sell as much honey, locally, 

 as the man living in a town of 500, nor can 

 a person living in a town of 500 sell as 



much honey locally as can a man living in 

 a town of 1,000 or more. This admits of 

 no argument. Then, too, it makes a differ- 

 ence where, in a, town, the producer lives. 

 If he has a store, as I have, he is well lo- 

 cated to dispose of his honey advantageous- 

 ly; but in any community, if he be remote 

 from the center of the town, or on a farm, 

 his chances of selling are reduced. 



It is said that "one farmer in eight now 

 keeps bees, ' ' and ' ' keeps ' ' is right. Box 

 hives, a salt barrel, a dovetail hive without 

 foundation. But the point is here: They 

 have actually started. They have bees. 

 They produce honey, and as soon as they 

 have a few pounds more than they need 

 for their own table they sell it — at less 

 than wholesale prices. The result spells 

 lower local prices for the regular producer, 

 the man with 50 to 400 hives or more. 



I am anxious that we get the best price 

 for honey that we possibly can; but loca- 

 tion has much to do with prices. A very lit- 

 tle advertising will sell honey in the city 

 store, while a thousand dollars put into ad- 

 vertising would not sell $1,000 worth of 

 honey in this county. From experience in 

 advertising I am positive of this: We small 

 producers can get better than wholesale 

 prices, the cost of containers added, in local 

 sales. We can get about wholesale -prices, 

 containers and postage added, for mail or- 

 ders. We can get about as much for 60- 

 pound cans, f. 0. b. home statiouj as we can 

 .get from jobbers, but here comes another 

 problem: What are wholesale prices? 



In a recent semi-monthly Market News 

 Bulletin, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 I found a range of 11% to 22 cents a pound 

 for ' ' light amber ' ' honey, an average of 

 about 16c. So I ask again: What shall 

 we honey producers base our prices on? 

 Shall it be on 12 cents of the St. Louis quo- 

 tation? If so, the Philadelphia price of 

 22 cents is too high. 



It must be apparent to even the casual 

 observer that there is a problem here which 

 will take united effort to solve. I have no 

 solution, altho I wish I had. Personally, 

 however, I shall not sell honey at a price 

 which is wholesale at my nearest large 

 trade center, Chicago. Can I get more than 

 that price and add the price of cans and, in 

 mail order trade, the postage? These items 

 1 ake about three cents a pound to be added 

 to the price of a gallon of honey, making 

 it cost my customer $2.16. My past experi- 

 ence tells me that I can get that, and more. 

 At first I got $2.25 in first, second, and third 

 parcel post zones. Then I cut out the third, 

 and finally got $2.40, If I now had honey, 

 I should try for 20 cents a pound, the cost 

 of containers and postage added, and at 

 that I'd be asking but about two cents a 

 pound above the average wholesale price to- 

 day, while in cities and large villages the 



