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(Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as BecoDd-Class Mail-Matter.) 

 Published. Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn Street. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, NOVEMBER 15,1906 



VoL XLVI— No, 46 



brial ^Alofes 

 and Comments 



■XT—* 



The Demand for Honey 



It seems to be increasing, and we believe it 

 would increase much faster if a certain line 

 of advertising were carried on by the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association. While in a poor 

 honey 6eason the demand may almost equal 

 the supply, in a season like that of 1903 there 

 seems to be an over-supply of honey. But it 

 really is an under-distribution. Large quan- 

 tities of honey are dumped into a few of the 

 leading markets, then there is a slump in 

 prices, and honey cm hardly be given away. 



More and more bee-keepers are coming to 

 see that often the most profitable honey market 

 for them lies right near their own homes. 

 This may not be true of those individuals who 

 produce several tons in a season, and even 

 such can dispose of their crop within a few 

 miles of their homes. It will pay to look 

 after that home demand first. 



Successful Honey-Marketing 



Usually there are are not many royal roads 

 to success in anything. This is surely true 

 of marketing honey , and bee-keepers are slowly 

 finding it out. Superiority of flavor and body 

 count most. Unripe honey will ruin any 

 market in a very short time. Mr. Hutchinson 

 tells something of his own experience in the 

 last Bee-Keepers' Review. It is well worth 

 reproducing, as is often the case with what he 

 says concerning bee-keeping, honey, etc. : 



There is just as much difference between 

 ripe and green buckwheat honey as there is in 

 clover or any Kind of honey. Our buckwheat 

 honey was left on the hives until it was all 

 sealed over, and is ripe, rich and smooth — as 

 much different from the strong, raak " green " 

 stuff usually found on the market as can be 

 imagined. 



I don't doubt that honey can be evaporated 

 artificially, but evaporation is not curing or 



ripening. The bees put nectar through a 

 process that really works a change in its 

 character — in fact, I am coming to believe 

 that the finishing touch is not put on until 

 the combs have received their coat of " var- 

 nish " over the cappings. Comb honey re- 

 moved from the bees as soon as sealed over 

 never has the " finish " of the extracted 

 honey of mine that was left on the hives a 

 month after it was sealed over. 



Without the finish of this real superiority, 

 it would be impossible to sell honey, a6 we 

 have been doing, at a cent and a half above 

 the market price. Time and again, this fall, 

 has some man written that our price was too 

 high. " Why, I can buy any quantity of 

 clover honey at 6 and 7 cents delivered," is 

 the way tbey would write; yet when they re- 

 ceived a sample of our honey they would 

 plank down the S 1 ^ cents and pay the freight. 

 Do you suppose they would do this if it were 

 not really superior? 



The foundation and the corner stone of 

 selling honey above the market price are the 

 production of a superior article. Without 

 this you may just as well send your honey 

 away to some jobber and take what he will 

 give you for it. Fir6t, produce a good article 

 — away up— thick, ripe, rich, smooth and irre- 

 sistible. 



Let me give an illustration : I make no 

 effort whatever to retail honey at the house. 

 I scarcely know why; perhaps it is because 

 we don't want to be bothered with people run- 

 ning in at all hours for little dabs of honey. 

 If they do come after it, we let them have it, 

 but we take no pains to encourage the habit. 

 Well, one of our married daughters had some 

 of this fine, well-ripened raspberry honey on 

 her table, and a neighbor who was in was 

 given a taste of it. The next day this neigh- 

 bor's little boy came up with a pail after some 

 of that "splendid honey." Then this neigh- 

 bor had a neighbor and she was given a taste 

 of the honey, and the little boy was sent up 

 again for another pailful for the neighbor. 

 It seems that the man at the neighbor's house 

 was a barber, and he talked about the honey 

 at the shop until the proprietor sent up for a 

 can of it. When it reached the shop every 

 barber had to have a taste, and then every 

 one must have a jar of it, and where this 

 endless chain will end I don't know. All this 



happened here in Flint, where honey, both 

 comb and extracted, can be bought almost 

 any day at nearly all the groceries. But it 

 seems that the honey is simply irresistible, it 

 will sell itself. 



Now, if you wish to be able to sell honey 

 for a cent, or 2 cents, above the market price, 

 produce this kind of honey, and all you have 

 to do is simply to let it stay on the hives until 

 it is ripe. If you have so few combs that you 

 are obliged to extract in order to give the bees 

 room, it is not likely that you will produce 

 very much of this high grade honey. You 

 must have plenty of empty combs. If you 

 haven't got them, yet them ; that's the first 

 step. 



One other point: Don't let this fine honey 

 stand around in open vessels exposed to the 

 air, and thus lose its delicate aroma— the 

 heart and soul of honey. Strain it right from 

 the extractor and run it into air-tight recepta- 

 cles at once, and close it up from the air. 



After you have produced a crop of this 

 superior honey don't imagine that your work 

 is done. People can't buy it unless they 

 know you have it. You will have to adver- 

 tise, and advertise liberally at first, and send 

 out samples freely. People prefer to see a 

 sample of the goods before they buy. This 

 will cost something, but, gradually, you will 

 build up a liet of customers who will come to 

 you year after year, and they won't ask for 

 samples either. If you say the honey is the 

 same as last year, they will believe you. 



Mr. E. D. Townsend has been selling honey 

 in this way for several years, and now finds 

 little need of advertising; in fact, much of 

 his honey was contracted this year before it 

 was off the hives. 



The principles of success can be stated in a 

 few words: Produce a big crop of good honey 

 at a low cost, and sell it at a high price. Sim- 

 ple, isn't it? Yet it covers the whole ground. 



There is nothing like personal experience, 

 when it comes to showing others how to suc- 

 ceed. Better follow Mr. H.'s advice if you 

 want to get ahead in the honey-business. 



Uniting Colonies in the Fall 



The Bee-Keepers' Review gives the follow- 

 ing in its editorial columns concerning fall 

 uniting of bees: 



""Often in~the~fall~bf - the year it i6 advisable 

 to unite 3 or more colonies into one, and the 

 first question that comes up is, How to avoid 

 fighting among the bees that are put together? 

 As I have never had any trouble from this 

 source, perhaps I can't help much with my 

 advice, but I can tell how I have done the 

 work successfully. Almost invariably have I 

 had all of the bees queenless except one col- 

 ony, and I have piled the hives one above the 

 other for 3 or 3 days, then put the best combs 

 into one hive, and shaken the bees from the 



