314 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



is made in the above plans to cover 

 complete accounting for a honey 

 business, but, as the title indicates, 

 only cost of honey production is con- 

 sidered. 



In all general factory accounting 

 the factory or production accounts 

 are always treated independently of 

 the many requirements of a general 

 commercial business, and the output 

 of the factory is turned over to the 

 selling organization at cost. In the 

 production and distribution of honey, 

 the home yard, with its central pro- 

 duction plant and the outyards, take 

 the place of the factoi"y, and in the 

 foregoing plans it has been my aim 

 to show the cost per one hundred 

 pounds of honey produced in any 

 given yard in receptacles ready for 

 wholesale distribution. It is true that 

 honey may be produced and laid in 

 the warehouse at a very satisfactory 

 cost, and poor management, poor 

 judgment or other adverse business 

 conditions in selling and distributing 

 may result in heavy losses. 



Cost Sold, or Market Cost 



Before profit or loss can be de- 

 clared the general accounting cover- 

 ing the distribution and general busi- 

 ness must be considered, and this will 

 take in besides cost of production 

 given above. 



1. Executive and administrative 

 salary and expense. 



2. Traveling salesmen's salary and 

 expense. 



3. Advertising and general public- 

 ity expense, either treated as invest- 

 ment and written off over a period of 

 years, or as direct charge against 

 current business. 



4. General office and warehouse 

 expense, transportation, etc. 



5. All other miscellaneous ex- 

 pense. 



Furthermore, no man engaged in 

 honey business would be justified in 

 reporting as profit for the purpose of 

 income tax his entire profits in his 

 very best year, because as a practical 

 honey man he has operated under 

 conditions which he knows may not 

 occur again for years. Hence, in ad- 

 dition to his actual business expendi- 

 tures, adequate provisions in the 



shape of reserves must be built up 

 from profits to care for such things. 



7. Reserve for meeting excessive 

 winter losses, possibly 10 per cent on 

 swarm investment. 



8. Reserve for meeting epidemic 

 disease losses, possibly 5 per cent on 

 swarm, frames and comb invest- 

 ments. 



9. Reserve to meet loss from crop 

 failure, possibly 10 per cent on pro- 

 duction cost. But as none of these 

 has anything to do with cost of pro- 

 duction, they should be treated 

 rather as a matter of judgment in 

 connection with complete accounting. 

 Such reserves should be reasonable 

 and just, based on your local condi- 

 tions, the object being not to fool 

 yourself into thinking you have made 

 a great deal of money in some fa- 

 vorable year. All that will be per- 

 mitted in income tax accounting is 

 your actual loss, regardless of the 

 amount of reserves. 



Michigan. 



THE SEASON OF 1920 



By F. Dundas Todd 



Our weather man in Victoria has 

 explained it all away, in fact has 

 proved himself almost as great an 

 adept as was the famous W. H. Glad- 

 stone, who was supposed to be able 

 to explain anything away, even the 

 existence of Garibaldi's wife. He 

 showed us how, two years ago, Ju- 

 piter Pluvius must have gone mighty 

 wet when so many folks were going 

 dry, and had wandered greatly from 

 his orthodox habits, pouring out rain 

 continuously where it was not needed 

 or wanted, and forgetting altogether 

 vast areas all over the world where 

 everything was burning up under the 

 fierce rays of an unshaded sun. 

 However, he gave us a lot of consola- 

 tion by informing us that the great 

 air currents were apparently return- 

 ing to their orthodox paths, and he 

 thought the worst was over. Fur- 

 thermore, he felt bold enough to 

 prophesy a mild winter for us on 

 Vancouver Island, and we certainly 

 are enjoying balmy breezes in No- 



No. 4. — Bec-housc of a depot agent in t'arniola. 



vember, a great improvement over 

 what we had in September and Octo- 

 ber, when we had chilly winds and 

 continuous rain. 



April, May and June were, with us, 

 cold and wet, but beekeepers did not 

 worry much about that, as generally 

 speaking such a condition means a 

 good honey crop in July, for the 

 ground holds the moisture in the dry 

 summer months and puts the nectar 

 in the alsike clover and fireweed, es- 

 pecially the latter. But July and 

 August were dreadfully dry, and we 

 had for the second season missed our 

 heavy June rains at the end of the 

 month, so the result is that the honey 

 crop in the wet belt of British Colum- 

 bia is probably the poorest in many 

 years. 



My own crop was worse than noth- 

 ing. I did not have enough on hand 

 for safe winter stores, so I made 

 careful inventory and found I had 

 1,250 pounds of honey on hand for 

 38 colonies, an average of 33 pounds 

 to the hive. At one time I would have 

 thought this an ample amount; in 

 those days I figured on stores for 

 winter only, and knew that about 20 

 pounds was ample between the first 

 of September and the middle of 

 March. Wiser grown, I now want 

 stores sufficient for winter and 

 spring, especially spring; so now, 

 on September first, I like to see at 

 least 50 pounds in the hive, 20 to 

 winter on and 30 to spring on, and 

 that is not too much. 



So I divided 1,250 pounds by 50 

 and found the answer to be 25, the 

 number of colonies I could carry 

 through the winter and spring with 

 efficiency. Then I did something I 

 have never done before. I marked for 

 extinction a dozen colonies, divided 

 their stores and brood among the fa- 

 vored ones as needed, and then 

 smothered them with sulphur. I have 

 26 colonies, all of good Italian stock, 

 the queens being nearly all of this 

 season's raising. I have bodies and 

 combs complete for nearly as many 

 more, so I am not worrying any, as 

 with an ordinary spring I can double 

 my forces easily and have them all in 

 shape for the July flow. 



I am glad to say that I am not out 

 of pocket on the season's work, for I 

 sold everything in my yard that was 

 odd size — that is not Dadant-Jumbo 

 hives — made many betterments, and 

 have a fair balance in my favor. 

 Making Inventory 



As usual, following good old Dr. 

 Miller's custom, I made inventory in 

 the end of April of the brood and 

 stores on hand, then arranged the 

 figures under various groupings to 

 see what I could learn from them. 

 To outward appearances every hive 

 in the yard, excepting one, was Da- 

 dant style, but only thirteen were so 

 in fact. The previous season had 

 been a poor one, with the result that 

 24 colonies had plenty of brood in 

 the brood-chamber, but no stores to 

 speak of, so I had to leave the neces- 

 sary honey in shallow frames above. 

 Quite naturally the bees formed their 

 winter nest on these, so in April all 

 the brood was on shallow conibs 

 When, therefore, I took stock I haa 



