Oct. 4, 1906 



837 



American Ttee Journal 



going where they please — in short, the bees take care of 

 themselves. This class of bee-keepers seldom have any- 

 fancy honey, but such as it is, goes to town to break down 

 prices, which hurts both the producer and market for others. 



If a bee-keeper has but a few colonies and handles his 

 bees alone, he should have a method, business-like, so as 

 easily to keep ahead of the work of the bees ; or if operating 

 several apiaries, and has some hired help, a small part of 

 the year, each hired hand has his respective duties and is 

 held responsible, so everything goes like clockwork. 



When the honey harvest is over, the business end of 

 bee-keeping requires the bee-keeper to know about what the 

 honey crop of the United States is, what dealers are paying, 

 and what in cash he should get for the different grades 

 of his honey. I fear some of us have only partly finished 

 our bee-keeping education. We have partly learned how to 

 get all the honey our locality produces. We get some nice 

 comb honey, but have by far too many unfinished sections, 

 too many sections that will not case up well, too many 

 grades and a poor market. Are we not to blame? The 

 merchant spends much time and money to get trade, in 

 advertising, displaying goods. Yes, each clerk must undergo 

 a training of neatness, pleasant ways to await on customers. 

 By his business methods he knows the daily markets, when 

 and where to buy as well as to whom to sell goods on credit. 



N. E. FliANCK 



Then let us spend another hour studying how the manu- 

 facturer or professional man succeeds. All by strict busi- 

 ness principles enforced. Can we not take a lesson? 



When I go into honey commission houses and see the 

 untidy, dirty cases of broken comb honey, several grades 

 in the same case, thick and thin combs together, fancy combs 

 in front of a case of poor honey, leaky packages of extracted 

 honey, I wonder the commission dealer gets as good prices 

 as he does. Who is to blame? Large bakeries now buy 

 honey in car-lots at prices the average or smaller bee-keeper 

 can not afford to sell at. He must sell to consumers, in such 

 packages as such market demands. For my home market I 

 find the 2, 3, 5, and 10 pound syrup or friction-top cans nicely 

 labeled, the same as all canned shelf-goods, sell best. For 

 farmer trade and shipping market, the 5 gallon flat-top, jack- 

 eted can with 3-inch screw cap, and bail handle, costing 35 

 cents each to any National member. Honey in this package 

 goes over all railroads west of Chicago as fourth-class freight, 

 billed "Honey in cans entirely encased in wood." I have no 

 trouble to sell tons of honey in this package. Only in my 

 home market, I sell liquid honey in winter, unless to some 

 one who is a traveling salesman for me, going from city to 

 city, and he has no place to liquify honey. For such customers, 

 I remove the can from the wood jacket, set the can in hot 



water a little while, until the honey is liquified, then return 

 the jacket and ship. This winter I have two such salesmen, 

 one selling from 4 to 15 of those cans in each town. My 

 home market (city of 3,500 inhabitants) uses at least 10,000 

 pounds of extracted honey and 500 pounds of comb honey each 

 year, no one selling from house to house, but in every store 

 in town where groceries, meat or provisions are sold, is the 

 above-size labeled honey-cans ; prices in each store, all alike, 

 and marked on each package by me. Customers pays same 

 anywhere, my house or town. 



If I buy goods of my dealer he makes a profit on his 

 goods in exchange, or if I draw cash for honey, I allow him 

 10 percent commission. Tons of my honey are sold this way 

 in several cities. Why can't others do likewise? 



To-day I called on a Wisconsin bee-keeper using business 

 principles (by the way, he is here in the room). This year 

 he got a pretty good harvest of 7,000 pounds fancy comb and 

 8,000 pounds of extracted honey, while his neighbor bee- 

 keepers got less than half as much per colony. He also got 

 a much higher price for his honey than his neighbors, who 

 loaded in the same car; all cash at car. He uses fence sepa- 

 tors, No. 1 plain sections, and extra-thin foundation; all 

 hives leveled on stands, everything kept clean and tidy, while 

 those other parties say "no use of all this." Remember, 

 he got twice as much per pound as some of those parties. 

 A few winters ago this same man was to read a paper at our 

 State bee-keepers' convention in February, but when the date 

 came, with the thermometer indicating 30 below zero, he wrote 

 me his bee-cellar had cooled down 2 degrees, and he must 

 not leave his bees. 



While at his house to-day he told me many neighbor bee- 

 keepers were judging the amount of winter stores by lifting 

 the hives. On examination, he found they were fooled, as 

 many combs were heavy with bee-bread instead of honey. 

 Excuse me for being personal in illustrations, but it is these 

 little business ends of bee-keeping that pay. Let us think 

 about such things, and in the future keep a better account 

 of all expenses and sales so that at any time we can tell 

 the number of colonies of bees, pounds of honey produced 

 and sold, to whom sold, what kind of advertising paid us 

 best, etc. Let us attend more bee-keeping conventions, read 

 more carefully the bee-papers and bee-books, ever remember- 

 ing this great land we call ours, is large enough for us all. 

 With charity for all, and honest hearts, using the business 

 end of bee-keeping, we continue in the sweetest occupation 

 of our republic — bee-keeping for pleasure and profit. 



N. E. France. 



Mr. Moore — I would like Mr. France to state the style, 

 net weight, and prices of the packages he gets for his honey 

 for local trade. 



Mr. France — I would rather use a 10-pound pail, as it is 

 a little less work; but in spite of all I can do to try to crowd 

 the larger package, students, who are largely consumers, buy 

 the smaller packages, so that the 3 and 5 pound tins get 

 rid of the larger portion of the honey. I have the I, 2, 3, 

 5, and 10 pounds in the grocery stores. The 3's and S's 

 are the ones we have to renew. My price has been 8 cents 

 a pound net for the honey, and then add the cost of the can 

 to that, with no cans returned. 



Mr. Hershiser — The cost of putting up the smaller pack- 

 ages is greater. 



Mr. France — Yes, but having some hired help, when we 

 have rainy days, they say, "Mr. France has a lot of work for 

 us down at the bee-house, there is no play to-day;" so that 

 the cost that way is not very much. 



Mr. Hershiser — I put up a larger quantity in jelly glasses 

 and I am able to net 13 cents a pound for them. I presume 

 I have put up about 14,000 of the packages; and the honey I 

 sell as low as 8 cents is put up in the wholesale package. 



Mr. Holekamp — How do you keep these packages from 

 leaking? 



Mr. Hershiser — I cut a little cap out of paraffin paper just 

 a little larger than the top of the jelly glass. Then force the 

 tin-top of the jelly glass down over that, and it practically 

 seals it, and it doesn't leak. 



Mr. Bartz — As to the tin honey-package, isn't it stated 

 in the bee-papers that tin is detrimental to honey? If this is 

 so, I should like to have it stated here. 



Pres. Dadant — That is so if the tin is made of lead. I 

 have had as large experience as anybody in keeping honey in 

 tin, and we have kept it for years. When it is cut, and the 



