124 



GLE AIRINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Feb. 



scarcely pays to waste time in the effort to drive 

 away suspicion. 



CAN WE MAKE MONEV, BUYING AND SELLING 

 HONEY ? 



In Notes and Queries Mr. Nance wished you to 

 tell him If he could make money by buying and 

 selling honey. Repljing, laconically, you said: 

 " Without knowing our man, I do not know how we 

 could answer." There are but few good salesmen 

 when it comes to selling honey. This is a product, 

 the sale of which must be pushed. People do not 

 generally volunteer to go to the bee-keeper to buy, 

 unless the price is put very low, which often cre- 

 ates a good run; but to sell at the highest price, it 

 is necessary to go to the consumer with samples, 

 get orders, then deliver, giving some days for prep- 

 aration to meet the bill. 



No, it will not pay to buy honey to sell again if 

 sold to grocerymen, as they will get about all the 

 profits. If you are a good salesman, sharp and 

 shrewd in business, and will look well to the de- 

 tails, selling direct to consumers, you can do a good 

 business. 



HOW TO DEFEAT, IN A LEGITIMATE WAY, FARMER 

 BEE-KEEPERS WHO CUT PRICES. 



I have met a good many bee-keepers on the 

 streets this season who were offering honey at low 

 prices, but even then it seemed to sell slowly. I 

 am naturally sympathetic, and take a good share 

 of comfort in helping brother bee-keepers get rid 

 of honey they are offering at ruinous prices. What 



I have to say on this subject will be an answer to a 

 question put to me by friend Rambler in a letter to 

 Gleanings some time ago, which was something 

 like this: " As J. A. Buchanan has had much ex- 

 perience in selling honey, will he tell us what course 

 he pursues when he comes in competition with per- 

 sons offering honey at low prices? " 



We resort to many expedients to defeat those 

 simple-minded bee-keepers who exercise such poor 

 judgment in selline- their honey so low as not to 

 pay the cost of production. We generally aim to 

 get the first honey of the season on the markets 

 near us, establishing a good pr ce, which goes a 

 good way toward governing ethers .n their sales; 

 but when we do find person^ selling so low as to in- 

 jure the markets we give them a lesson not soon 

 forgotten. 



To illustrate: Last fall my son and I were solicit- 

 ing orders for honey in one of our near towns, sell- 

 ing extracted honey at the rate of 6!4 lbs. for $1.00, 

 we furnishing screw-cap can for the same, and one- 

 pound sections at '^3 cts., taking no orders for less 

 than 5 lbs. We had not been working long before 

 we found that there was a man just ahead of us 

 selling two pounds of comb honey for 25 cts., and 



II lbs. of extracted for $1 00. This was more than 

 we could stand, so we started for his wagon. Find- 

 ing him I paid to him, " My friend, are you the 

 man who is selling honey? " 



"Yes," said he; "come and look at it." 

 I remarked that the honey was good, and asked 

 him it he had been selling much. He said it was 

 rather slow; that he thought of trying to sell out at 

 the stores pretty soon. 



" Now, if you will put the price down pretty low," 

 said I, " we will take it off your hands at once." We 

 bought his little crop, paying 7 cts. for extracted 

 and 11 for comb, in pound sections. He had 900 lbs., 

 half comb and half extracted. Now, we went on 

 that day and took orders for all that honey, clca7~- 



ing $70.00 on this lut! This paid us well enough for 

 our great " sympathy " in this case. 



I will further say to Mr. Nance, that, from my ob- 

 servation and knowledge of the business of buying 

 and selling, if bee-keepers can not sell their own 

 honey at good prices, it would not be worth while 

 to try to deal at all in honey. 



By way of encouragement, I may say to those 

 who may want employment, that we make it pay to 

 handle honey. After selling our small crop this 

 season, 6U0O pounds, my elder son (20 years old) and 

 myself bought and sold 30,000 pounds, clearing $850. 

 We did this work, too, in less than three months' 

 time. We bought direct from producers, where 

 honey was plentiful and cheap, and sold direct to 

 consumers, thus benefiting those who were looking 

 for an outlet for their large honey crop, and at the 

 same time furnishing profitable employment to 

 ourselves after we had no more to do at our own 

 apiaries. Now, this is the kind of business that we 

 "add to bee-keeping" to fill out the unoccupied 

 time. It has been suggested, that I hurt my trade 

 by describing my methods of selling honey; but I 

 do not think I have ever lost any thing by trying to 

 benefit my fellows. True, some bee-keepers have 

 taken up my plans, and have appeared in competi- 

 tion with me in my own markets; but for all this, 

 my trade keeps growing in a satisfactory way. 



J. A. Buchanan. 



HoUiday's Cove, W. Va., Jan. 8. 



INVERTIBLE BOTTOM - BOARDS FOR 

 THE CELLAR. 



DR. MILLER ARGUES IN FAVOR OF THEM. 



With no desire for controversy, but just because 

 I believe the matter somewhat important— indeed, 

 quite important— 1 want to say a word in reply to 

 Ernest's remarks on page 51. i'ou say, Ernest, that 

 Mr. Boardman winters successfully, and I don't. 

 Now, it's j ust that difference between my wintering 

 and his that makes me very much interested n 

 this bottom-board. 1 suspect his bees do better be- 

 cause there :8 never any difficulty about the air 

 getting at the cluster easily; and if that were the 

 only way to accomplish it, I wouldn't hesitate now 

 to throw away all my bottom-boards and pile up my 

 hives in the cellar, just like his. Suppose we look 

 at one of his colonies in the cellar. The cluster 

 hangs down below the bottom-bars; and if the 

 usual bottom-board were there, the bees would be 

 all over it, and perhaps filling the entrance, so that 

 no air could enter, except such as might be strain- 

 ed through these bees at the entrance. It looks 

 reasonable that Mr. Board man's bees are better off 

 with free access of air on all sides than they would 

 be with this close bottom-board, and the usual en- 

 trance of iX square inches, and that entrance filled 

 with bees. But a board mis,'ht be directly under 

 Mr. Boardman's cluster without doing any harm, 

 so long as it did not touch the cluster, and I sus- 

 pect the closing-upof three sides would make no 

 material difference. Now, that is just exactly what 

 I have with my deep bottom-board, only in some 

 cases the cluster comes down and touches the 

 board below, in which cases I think it would be bet- 

 ter that the board be deeper. In no case has there 

 ever been any inclination to cluster at the en- 

 trance; and as it is now near the end of January, I 

 think there will be none. The entrance is from 5 



