1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



23 



than the cost of production. Half 

 of these colonies were operated with 

 hired help, high wages being paid. If 

 the crop had been 60 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey per colony an income 

 of 20 per cent of the investment 

 would have been secured, and the 

 honey could have been sold at 12 

 cents per pound. 



There were some districts in the 

 Rocky Mountains where average 

 crops of more than 120 pounds per 

 colony were secured, and the bee- 

 keepers who have received between 

 100 and 200 pounds of extracted 

 honey per colony, if their system of 

 operation is economical, should very 

 easily make good money and sell 

 lioney at 10 cents per pound, even un- 

 der present high-priced supplies, 

 ihe writer certainly would be glad to 

 contract his entire crop at 10 cents 

 per pound with present supply prices, 

 if he could be assured of 100 pounds 

 per colony or better. 



However, it is not that the writer 

 should like to see lower prices on 

 honey, but it seems that lowering 

 prices is the only way the beekeepers 

 have at present for stimulating con- 

 sumption. If the beekeepers would 

 borrow 7 cents per pound on the crop 

 in the warehouse and put the whole 

 amount into advertising, and this be 

 done on a national scale, so the en- 

 tire crop of honey could be moved, 

 they would doubtless receive as much 

 for their honey as they will by wait- 

 ing for the market to absorb it at a 

 low price. The public will buy honey 

 and will pay 30 to 60 cents per pound 

 for it and will feel that they are get- 

 ting good value, if we can only bring 

 it to their attention. The case of 

 peanut butter is one that I have re- 

 ferred to a number of times, and I 

 believe it is a good comparison. As you 

 know, peanut butter did not meet 

 with public approval .until but a few 

 years ago, but now there are thou- 

 sands of tons of peanut butter con- 

 sumed in the United States and the 

 consumption is growing daily. If we 

 can work with honey along the same 

 line, as I believe we shall, in another 

 ten or twenty years honey wll be a 

 food on almost every table. 



The outlook this winter and until 

 the 1921 crop is off the hive, does not 

 look any too encouraging, especially 

 when looked at from the individual 

 beekeeper's viewpoint; but if he 

 could look over the country and see 

 the cars moving steadily to market 

 and see that this honey is actually 

 being consumed, he would feel better. 

 Honey is moving at a quite considera- 

 ble rate of speed, and before the new 

 crop is harvested most of the old 

 honey will be consumed. There are a 

 number of disturbing factors that 

 should be noticed by the beekeepers, 

 one of the principal ones being the 

 importing of honey from foreign 

 countries. This is coming in large 

 quantities from South America, Cuba, 

 the West Indies, Mexico, New Zea- 

 land and other countries. 



Some legislation to protect the 

 American honey industry is neces- 

 sary, and I believe there will be in 



the near future. One of the most un- 

 fortunate features in building up the 

 honey industry is the lack of profit 

 there is in it for the honey bottlers. 

 Tlie profit is so small that the honey 

 packer and bottler cannot afford to 

 spend the money in advertising, dem- 

 onstrating and general publicity that 

 should be spent. The reason that the 

 publicity so far attempted has not 

 been more profitable is that the hun- 

 dreds and thousands of local bee- 

 keepers do not take into account the 

 necessity for the packer making a 

 profit, and sell honey at the same 

 price that they e.xpect to sell to the 

 carlot buyer. The wholesale buyer 

 or packer of honey has no protection 

 whatever from the producer going 

 right by him and selling to the par- 

 tits he sells to and who spend no 

 money pushing honey and who han- 

 dle it only occasionally. They do 

 not look ahead over ten or twenty 

 years to see what the honey business 

 can be made in that territory. What 

 we want are not honey dealers, but 

 trade builders, and we cannot get 

 honey trade builders in any other 

 way than by raising them up from 

 among the beekeepers or in firms 

 that are now very closely allied with 

 beekeepers. 



A great many of the beekeepers 

 and writers in the bee journals are 

 finding too much fault with the honey 

 buyer, whether he be large or small, 

 for the profit he is making. A point 

 comes to mind: A peddler buys 

 honey of the producer, we will say at 

 15 cents per pound, and goes from 

 house to house retailing it at 25 

 cents per pound. The beekeeper 

 would naturally suppose that this is 

 too large a profit, but when the work 

 necessary is taken into account and 

 the fact that the honey peddler is 

 doing a missionary work in encour- 

 aging the use of honey, his profit is 

 not a bit too large. The writer has 

 known of men who have made from 

 $20 to $30 per day selling honey. The 

 average for a whole year, of course, 

 would be cut down very materially, 

 and we beekeepers should not be- 

 grudge the high wages, even up to 

 $50 per day that a peddler would 

 make selling our honey when our 

 own time in the bee-yards is worth 

 fully as much during the summer sea- 

 son. We are entirely too prone to 

 deny the other fellow a chance to 

 make a good thing at his business 

 and we ought to be good sports and 

 glad that from the honey dealer down 

 to the peddler who sells our products, 

 a good profit is made. I have heard 

 beekeepers make the statement that 

 honey dealers were robbers. I have 

 also encountered a wholesale gro- 

 ceryman who accused the writer of 

 paying the beekeeper too much for 

 his honey, stating that it was not 

 good for the beekeeper to receive 

 such a high price. He had the idea 

 that the producer should be paid as 

 small an amount as possible, and 

 seemed to think that the lowest price 

 was all that the producer deserved. 

 These ideas on the part of both the 

 dealer and the producer are entirely 



wrong, and I am glad to say that they 

 are not encountered very often. The 

 average dealer is glad to know of the 

 prosperity of the beekeeper and in 

 fact I have heard many of them 

 speak in glowing terms of some of 

 the producers whose honey they han- 

 dle, and tell e.xultingly of the large 

 checks they had paid these men for 

 their product. This is certainly the 

 proper spirit, and I would like to see 

 more of this among the beekeepers 

 of the country, although I have heard 

 very few beekeepers show any ap- 

 preciation if a honey bottler has had 

 a prosperous year. 



We must realize that American 

 ideals stand for individual oppor- 

 tunity and a chance for everyone to 

 obtain the reward for initiative and 

 enterprise. We must not limit enter- 

 prise, for wherever this is done, our 

 liberties are in danger. 



There is one consolation in seeing 

 the dealer make good profits, for they 

 are, nine times out of ten, re-in- 

 vested in the business, and it is en- 

 larged for greater facilities for han- 

 dling our products. Honey market- 

 ing in the United States would be bet- 

 ter at the present time if twenty or 

 thirty honey packers had been able 

 to accumulate fortunes of $100,000 to 

 $1,000,000, as this money would be re- 

 invested in the business. It may be 

 hard for some beekeepers to see this, 

 but if this money is not forthcoming 

 from the business men for investment 

 in honey distribution the beekeepers 

 will have to put up this money them- 

 selves. 



November Bee Journal report, on 

 page 395: In the first paragraph 

 regarding crop selling the statement 

 is made that all reports indicate that 

 honey is moving very fast east of the 

 Missouri River and north of the Ohio. 

 The writer knows of a number of 

 carloads in Chicago and Toledo, Ohio, 

 that have been carried over from last 

 season, and the sale of this honey 

 has been exceedingly slow. Of two 

 or three carloads in Chicago, less 

 than one-half a car was sold during 

 the past si.x months. The sale in the 

 small country districts has doubtless 

 been very satisfactory, but the de- 

 mand in this territory for honey in 

 bulk has been exceedingly slow and 

 the market is not in a satisfactory 

 condition. 



Colorado. 



LOOSE-HANGING OR HOFFMAN 

 FRAMES, WHICH? 



By C. P. Dadant 



"I see in the 'Dadant System of Bee- 

 keeping' that you use loose-hanging 

 frames. Since you practice more or 

 less nomadic beekeeping, how do you 

 manage to keep the combs in place? 

 Also tell us what advantages there 

 are to each kind, the loose-hanging 

 and the Hoffman self-spacing frames." 



California. 



Answer. — I will begin by saying 

 that, by the advice of several people, 

 the standard Modified Dadant hive 

 is made with Hoffman self-spacing 



