1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



35 



Bee-keeping in the South- 

 west 



By Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas 



THE REAL. PRICE OF BULK COMB HONEY 

 IN TEXAS. 



On page 680 Otto 8ueltenfuss takes the 

 writer to task as giving to the bee-keeping 

 world an erroneous idea of the prices of bulk 

 comb honey. Had our correspondent taken 

 the pains to investigate the situation as 

 thoroughly as we did through some forty or 

 more letters asking for postal-card replies, 

 he would have found that by far the great- 

 est amount of Texas bulk comb honey sold 

 for 10 cents per pound, and a great part of 

 fhis realized those who sold direct even bet- 

 ter than this. We have sold on a 11, 11>^, 

 12, and 12 >^ cent basis the entire season for 

 bulk comb honey. For extracted honey our 

 price, f. o. b. shipping-point, was 9 cts. per 

 lb. in the two 60-lb. cans, and 9>^, 10, and 

 lOX cts. in the smaller-size pails in case lots. 



On page 580 he quotes the average price 

 for extracted as having been 7 cts., and a 

 dull market for this later for three months, 

 crowding it down to 6>^ cts. This seems 

 strange to us, since we have scoured the 

 country for extracted honey with which to 

 put up our bulk comb honey, and found 

 nearly everybody sold out; or those who had 

 any, held it at 8 to 9 cts. We ourselves paid 

 1% cts. for dark amber, and S% for light- 

 amber honey in two 60-lb. cans, in several 

 thousand pound lots. A single lot of 33 

 fifty-gallon barrels, we paid 7 cents per lb. 

 for, the lightest we could get, though still a 

 light amber. In the first place we have seen 

 no " water- white " honey this year, and 

 know of none that sold at so ridiculously a 

 low price as 6 to 6>< cents, as stated. If he 

 got so little for his honey it does not neces- 

 sarily set the price obtained for the great 

 bulk of the Texas honey crop. We have 

 yet to meet a single bee-keeper who is com- 

 plaining either about the demand or the 

 prices of honey this year; and many have 

 obtained more than the ten-cent basis. 



ORDER YOUR SUPPLIES EARLY. 



This is of more than average importance, 

 for delays in ordering the needed supplies 

 for the next season have resulted in far 

 greater losses than one would suppose with- 

 out a second thought. The writer has seen 

 instances where the simple delay of a month 

 in the spring meant almost the entire loss 

 of a honey crop to the owner of several hun- 

 dred colonies of bees, while in other in- 

 stances a great part of the main crop was 

 lost for the simple reason that the much- 

 needed supplies were either not to be ob- 

 tained at all or they were delayed "some- 

 where on the road " and could not be locat- 

 ed until it was too late. A little extra care 

 in this direction would prevent many a loss 

 of a crop. 



There are other advantages gained by the 



early ordering of supplies. It is still early 

 enough to do this; but the proper time to 

 get the new things should be in the late 

 fall or the early winter months. As soon 

 as the honey crop is out of the way, and 

 there is still some of the money on hand 

 from the proceeds of the apiary, turn it into 

 supplies for the next season. At this time 

 there is a reduction on early orders. These 

 can be shipped out earlier, since there is not 

 the rush of the busy season, and the trouble 

 resulting from delays en route will not be 

 felt nearly so much. 



But there is a much greater advantage; 

 and that is, if the supplies are received ear- 

 ly they can be put together a ad painted 

 at leisure when there is nothing else of a 

 pressing nature to interfere, as is the case 

 later in the season. Then we are able to 

 give our thoughts and attention to some of 

 the more important things that help so 

 much in making our business a success. 

 This warning is given at this time so that 

 those who have not already ordered will not 

 be caught delaying the matter any longer. 



PREVENT FIRES IN THE APIARY. 



Fire may do disastrous work in an apiary 

 if proper precautions for its prevention are 

 not taken. One of our river-bottom apia- 

 ries, in which the hives are on scaffolds four 

 feet high, is located in a Bermuda-grass 

 pasture. While the stock keep the grass 

 very short in the pasture, it grows very rank 

 and thick in the apiary during the year. 

 This fall the grass caught fire; and, before 

 it was discovered, a lot of supplies and some 

 lumber, part of the fence, and several large 

 trees, were burned. One of the scaffolds, to- 

 gether with six colonies of bees on it, also 

 burned up entirely. Several others that 

 had caught fire were saved. Had this not 

 happened on a Sunday, when there were 

 many plantation negroes near the place, the 

 fire would not, perhaps, have been discov- 

 ered, and the entire apiary would have been 

 destroyed. 



We have always been careful to guard 

 against such disasters; but this work was 

 delayed on account of other matters. It has 

 made a still firmer irapression upon us of 

 the importance of cleaning up the apiaries 

 in the fall of the year instead of leaving all 

 fallen leaves and other trash and rubbish 

 until spring. 



Although we have been careful before, 

 this experience has taught us to do this 

 work a little earlier and more thoroughly 

 than heretofore. It is not very pleasant 

 even to think of finding one or more of the 

 out-apiaries entirely wiped out by fire. 

 Where some of the apiaries are located in 

 pastures or forests it is also wise, as an extra 

 precaution, to plow or otherwise clean a 

 space entirely surrounding the bees. This, 

 together with a clean-kept apiary, not only 

 prevents fire losses but improves the ap- 

 pearance of things materially. It shows in- 

 telligence, energy, and thrift on the part of 

 the owner. 



