GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1919 



taking too siaall a unit of work at a time, a 



fairly speedy system can be evolved. About 



20 boxes can be painted and filled per hour. 



Does It Pay? 



We reckon that the honey should not cost 

 over two cents per box to produce. The 

 box and paper will cost nearly six cents 

 more, making a total cost of about eight 

 cents per box. If the cost of section honey 

 is computed we shall find the overhead 

 charges on producing honey about three 

 cents a section (the number of unsalable 

 sections makes this item high in our re- 

 gion). Mr. Crane gives the cost of con- 

 tainer, or section box, nearly a cent; foun- 

 dation, the best i^art of another cent; and 

 carton, still another cent, making a total 

 of nearly 6c a section. In neither case does 

 this cover the cost of shipping cases and 

 crates. Thus we have with our system 40 

 boxes per super at a production cost of 

 seven cents per box, as against the regular 

 system of 24 wooden section boxes per super 

 at six cents per section, the first method 

 also yielding an extra superful by the great- 

 er speed with which the bees will enter the 

 long frames. 



The boxes formerly sold for 35c, but last 

 winter went to 50c, thus keeping pace with 

 section honey. 



As in the development of any merchandis- 

 ing idea the second part of the enterprise, 

 the advertising and marketing, is often the 

 harder part of the undertaking. It must be 



remembered that one is floating a novelty, 

 a luxury at the price of such; and the pub- 

 lic is paying not only for the food in the 

 box but for the appeal to the eye and for 

 the fact that it is "something new." It 

 would be folly to try to sell such a product 

 in a community where the last cent of value 

 is demanded for the money spent; but 

 where one can be sure of a high-class patron- 

 age and can give something different, a lit- 

 tle better than the average and always de- 

 pendable, there is no reason why any novelty 

 in honey-packing should not find a ready 

 sale. I have found an excellent way of dis- 

 posing of the honey is to place it at not too 

 many high-grade shops where a poster and 

 one open box will usually sell it from the 

 start. If the patronage is a floating one, 

 such as the motor trade, the advertising 

 spreads automatically. 



These notes are of course only a sugges- 

 tion as to what can be done in the way of 

 selling fancy honey. This particular pack- 

 age was inspired by a remark made casual- 

 ly by Dr. Gates at Amherst that there ought 

 to be no reason why a fancy grade of honey 

 put up in an attractive box should not bring 

 as high a price as a box of Page and Shaws. 

 It is a case of studying one 's market and 

 giving it what it wants, and while it may 

 take strength of mind to feed back all the 

 slightly off grades of honey it is just turn- 

 ing poor honey into good bees with which 

 to gather the fanc,y crop. 



Chelmsford, Mass. 



MILKWEED AS A HONEY PLANT 



Spreading Over a Wide cArea. 



Yields Considerable Honey of 



Good Color, Flavor, and Body 



By John H. Lovell 



A FULL de- 

 scription of 

 m i 1 k w e e a 

 flowers and of 

 their adaptation 

 to the visits of 

 insects will be 

 found in the A 

 B C and X Y Z 

 of Bee Culture, 

 I>age 500; the present article will consider 

 the milkweed only as a source of honey. 

 While this genus is listed in the honey flora 

 from Michigan to Texas and from North 

 Carolina to California, in most localities it 

 is not sufficiently abundant to yield a surplus 

 and the honey is mixed with that from other 

 flowers. In California Richter informs me 

 that it is esteemed of great value and is 

 the source of much honey. While widely 

 distributed in that State it is not found near 

 the coast. 



Abundant in Michigan. 

 But there is no other section in this coun- 

 try in which milkweed is so abundant and 

 important, or has so great a future before 

 it in its relation to bee culture, as in North- 

 ern Michigan. P. W. Erbaugh, deputy api- 

 ary inspector, writes that the counties in 

 the northern part of the Lower Peninsula 

 usuallv contain sufficient numbers of this 



plant to yield a 

 fair surplus. In 

 Antrim, Charle- 

 voix, and Che- 

 boygan Counties 

 they consider the 

 milkweed as one 

 of their best 

 honey plants. 

 _ Ira D. Bartlett 



says that it is also plentiful in sections in 

 Emmet and Grand Traverse Counties. The 

 plants grow on any kind of soil from white 

 shore sand to heavy clay, but as with clover 

 the heavy soil gives the most nectar. 



The milkweeds are by many regarded as 

 noxious weeds, and the highway commis- 

 sioners of Michigan require the plants to be 

 cut; but despite all regulations to the con- 

 trary they are steadily increasing, even on 

 farms where efi'orts are made to check or 

 destroy them. On the other hand, there are 

 farmers who claim that they are a benefit 

 and improve the soil. To a man coming 

 from the prairie States, says Pellett, where 

 milkweeds grow only occasionally, it is as- 

 tonishing to see them in such abundance. 

 The land in places is completely covered by 

 them, almost to the exclusion of all other 

 \ cgetation. 



After the forests have been lumbered, 



