GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping Among the Rockies 



Wesley Foster, Boulder, Col. 



Wanted — a real good method of gather- 

 ing sweet-clover seed. I fear the beemen 

 are neglecting this plant when the seed is so 

 valuable, and the bloom so fine for bees. 



THE MARKET QUOTATIONS. 



It has long been somewhat of a puzzle to 

 me just how to interpret the honey quota- 

 tions given in the bee journals. It seems 

 they do not record very clearly the rise and 

 fall of the honey market. This is easily 

 explained by the different standards of grad- 

 ing used. For instance, a dark comb honey 

 would sell for several cents a pound more in 

 some markets than in others. Take the 

 quotations given in Gleanings, Dee. 1, as 

 an example. Some of the reports are from 

 houses selling to retailers and some selling 

 to wholesalers, and some, if not all, prob- 

 ably selling to both. Some of the jobbers 

 sell to other jobbers who sell to wholesalers 

 who sell to retailers who sell to consumers 

 who eat the honey that the bees made! 



The reports from Boston, Indianapolis, 

 and Cincinnati are undoubtedly the quota- 

 tions at which the honey is going to retail- 

 ers. The Chicago report of Mr. Burnett 

 shows conditions there very well. All sorts 

 of prices have been asked and secured. 

 Some consignment honey from the West 

 having been sold very low, the market has 

 been badly hurt. This price-cutting, I be- 

 lieve, has been done by houses that are not 

 especially interested in building up the hon- 

 ey business. 



The Kansas City report gives the jobbing 

 price, the wholesale price ranging ten to 

 twenty per cent higher than this. Wlien I 

 was in Kansas City the lowest price I was 

 quoted on any No. 1 comb honey by the 

 wholesale fruit-houses was $3.35 a case ; the 

 highest I was quoted was $3.75, which was 

 about November 15. Kansas City was very 

 heavily supplied with comb honey at that 

 time, but it was moving out at a good rate. 



The best price I see in all the quotations 

 is 17 to 18 cents in a jobbing way at Zanes- 

 ville, Ohio. The retailer must pay 20 to 21 

 cents wholesale for this honey, which is the 

 highest I see in all the quotations. 



Comb honey sells in Denver to the retailer 

 at $2.50 to $3.00 a case of 24 sections, with 

 some shading from this price where the bee- 

 men sell direct to retailers. 



The St. Louis report gives the conditions 

 about as I found them when I was there late 

 in November. Wholesale fruit and produce 



men in Kansas City handle considerable 

 honey, while in St. Louis they do not handle 

 it to speak of at all, leaving the honey busi- 

 ness for the wholesale butter, egg, and 

 cheese dealers and wholesalers who have less 

 perishable produce than fniit. 



poultry-raising in town does not pat. 

 The writer's experience with poultry has 

 not been very satisfactory. There are sev- 

 eral causes for this : First, I am not situated 

 so that feed can be bought as cheaply as it 

 should. During October and November the 

 feed bill was $15.65, with only about six 

 dozen eggs to show for it. Our flock aver- 

 ages about 170 eggs per hen per year, which, 

 I am told by Mr. Vaplon, poultryman for 

 the Colorado Agricultural College, is above 

 the average. 



We have been unable to dispose of all the 

 eggs throughout the year direct to consum- 

 ers, as should be the case. If I were on a 

 small farm where I could let the hens run, 

 I believe a flock of about a hundred hens 

 would take care of the grocery bill. I have 

 averaged about $1.50 a year profit per hen, 

 not figuring any thing for labor. Figuring 

 labor at 20 cents an hour, the poultry has 

 faced a deficit of about $75 per year. I 

 believe the city or town man can not profit- 

 ably keep poultry on the meat and egg 

 basis if he buys feed at market prices, sells 

 his eggs at market prices, and figures his. 

 time at even starvation wages. I will have the 

 ]ioultry-men of our Agricultural College 

 back of me, I believe, in this statement. 



The place where chickens pay is where 

 they can pick up half or more of their liv- 

 ing — where they can run. The commercial 

 poultry-plants succeed through getting 

 above the market prices for eggs and selling 

 fancy stock at high prices. There are very 

 few successful commercial poultry-plants in 

 the West, for the reason that they can not 

 compete with the farmer's supply of poul- 

 try and eggs which is produced so econom- 

 ically. When I move to a farm I want a 

 nice flock of chickens for profit; but in 

 town I want them only to furnish a few 

 eggs and a chicken occasionally for the 

 table. 



I hope this is not too hard on poultry- 

 keeping, but I believe it fairly defines the 

 limits of the business. 



