1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



313 



Picture No. 4 shows one of the bee 

 houses which are used by depot 

 agents through Carniola. This house 

 is made so that it can be taken apart 

 and moved away, if agent is dis- 

 charged. This type of bee house is 

 common among Carniolan depot 

 agents. Note the pictures on the 

 hives ! 



Minnesota. 



PLAN FOR FINDING COST OF 



PRODUCTION — EXTRACTED 



HONEY 



By Elmer T. Beach 

 The principles behind all cost find- 

 ing are really vei-y simple. Labor 

 spent in production, expense of oper- 

 ating the production plant, raw ma- 

 terials used, and provision for re- 

 turning to the producer the amount 

 of his original production investment, 

 these, together with record of the 

 amount of production, give all the 

 necessary data. Nothing elaborate 

 in way of accounts is necessary. It 

 does not matter how the facts are ar- 

 rived at. It is my opinion that any 

 person producing from as many as 

 ten colonies should know, without 

 guess work, what his output costs. 

 Business conditions may compel him 

 to sell below cost of production, but 

 at any rate he will know who is get- 

 ting it in the neck if he does. 



Productive Investments — First to 

 consider is necessary production in- 

 vestment. For my own convenience 

 I divide these into two parts: 

 Stack Investment — Constituting: 



1. Value of original swarm, 

 whether purchased or produced in 

 your own yards. If produced, for 

 the the sake of uniformity I will 

 value bees and queen at $5 each 

 swarm, and give the producing yard 

 credit on production cost for that 

 amount. 



2. Wood work of hive stack suffi- 

 cient to care for a normal crop; if a 

 Dadant hive, say 1 top and bottom- 

 board, 1 inner cover, 1 hive-body and 

 4 extracting supers, including nail- 

 ing and painting; also 10 brood- 

 frames and 40 extracting frames, in- 



cluding wiring and nailing. 



3. Full sheets of foundation for 

 each frame, including imbedding. 



4. Labor of the bees in built 

 combs, estimated and credited to the 

 producing colony and yard. 



-■Ml of the above constituting stack 

 investment, to be depreciated into 

 cost of production and returned to 

 the pi'oducer out of the profit at a 

 rate of 10 per cent per annum, in 

 addition to repairs and upkeep, so 

 that at the end of ten years the orig- 

 inal investment is refunded and the 

 stack paid for. 



General Plant Investment will in- 

 clude : 



1. Honey house. 



2. Extractors, tanks and other 

 necessary equipment. 



3. Winter cases and miscellaneous 

 investment. 



4. Trucks. 



These, together, constituting gen- 

 eral plant investment, to be depre- 

 ciated into cost of production as fol- 

 lows: 



5 per cent per annum on honey 

 house, if frame; or 3 per cent if 

 brick, or 2 per cent if reinforced 

 construction, as allowed by govern- 

 ment regulations. 



10 per cent per annum on all other 

 equipment, except trucks. 



25 per cent on trucks. 



The whole of this depreciation, in 

 addition to general lepairs and up- 

 keep, being apportioned among the 

 home yard and . various outyards on 

 the basis of number of producing col- 

 onies, spring count. 



COST OF PRODUCTION 



In arriving at production cost, I 

 would consider my fiscal year as be- 

 ginning November 1, preceding the 

 production season and ending Octo- 

 ber 31 of the production season. 1 

 would treat and consider each yard 

 or outyard as a producing unit, and 

 not the individual colony, although 

 individual colony records should be 

 kept. The cost to be based on the 

 entire year's output from the yard in 

 60-lb. cans or larger wholesale re- 



ceptacles turned over to the ware- 

 house and the commercial business 

 for distribution, regardless of the 

 quality of the honey, and the produc- 

 tion cost account, when made up, 

 would look about like this: 



Production Cost Account — Home 

 Debits 



1. To inventory all honey in hives 

 Nov. 1 preceding production 

 season and stores set aside for 

 spring feed at cost $ 



2. To purchase cost of sugar and 

 honey fed as shown by cash 

 and check records 



3. To pay roll, hired help 



4. To taxes and insurance 



5. To 60-lb. cans and other stor- 

 age receptacles 



G. To miscellaneous repairs and 

 upkeep of hive stack, etc 



7. Labor of proprietor when 

 performing manual labor of 

 production, figured at cost of 

 hired help 



8. Rent of apiary yard site, 

 whether hired or owned — 



9. Cost of reaueening — 



(a) Purchased queens — 



(b) Produced queens, for 

 the sake of uniformity pro- 

 ducing yard to have credit 

 for $1 each, for queens 

 produced and used 



10. To depreciation reserve for 

 refunding stack investment, 



10 per cent per annum 



11. To pro rate, portion of de- 

 nreciation reserve for refund- 

 ing central plant investment, 



as above 



12. To superintendance 



13. To share of executive ad- 

 ministrative expense (if de- 

 sired) 



Xo. 3. — Apiary bouse of F. Zclcnik, in Carniola. 



Total cost of production $ 



Credits 



1. By new brood-combs- built 

 during season, charged to in- 

 vestment $' 



2. By new extracting combs pro- 

 duced during season, charged 



to investment ' 



3. By new queens produced and 

 used either in investments for 

 increase or to requeen other 

 yards 



4. By new swarms hived and 

 used, either in producing yard 

 or outyards (no credit for ab- 

 sconding swarms and queens) 



5. Bv cannings and scrap wax 

 other than salvage on invest- 

 ment for old combs disposed 



of 



G. By inventory honey on hand 

 in hives or saved for feed 



Oct. 31 production season -._ 



7. Balance net cost of honey 

 croTj rarried forward to mer- 

 chandise account, the same as 

 though purchased from any 



other source 



The above net cost of production 

 divided by the whole number of 

 pounds of salable extracted honey 

 produced in the yard and delivered 

 to the warehouse ready for distri- 

 bution gives net average cost of nro- 

 duction, which should be recorded by 

 the hundred pounds. 



It will be observed that no attempt 



