490 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping Among the Eockie! 



Wesley Foster, BouMer, Colorado., 



EXTRACTED HONEY AND THE BUSINESS BEE- 

 KEEPER. 



For ti;e biis'i:efs beekeeper who is a sales- 

 man, theie is no doubt that extracted-honey 

 liroduetion is the best as a money-maker. 

 The expense for supplies is very much less, 

 aid the money received for extracted honey 

 will equal comb-honey prices if it is put up 

 in glass and tin packages and sold under a 

 trade name, as are other fancy food prod- 

 ucts. The average beekeeper does not have 

 time to look after the sales side as it should 

 be, but there are some beemen who are 

 proving themselvese capable of liandling 

 both. ' * * « 



SHALL APICULTURAL EDUCATION BE ENCOUR- 

 AGED? 



Mr. Hershiser writes a very interesting 

 article on this subject, page 331, May 1. 1 

 say }.es, if scientific marketing and distri- 

 bution is made of equal importance with the 

 production of honey in tlie couise. Those 

 who now are leaders in piopaganda for 

 apicultural education aie not placing em- 

 ))hasis on developing and extending sarie 

 methods of distribution. They believe, or 

 at least they act as if tlie proper procedure 

 is to encourage more production, and there- 

 by save some of the nectar going to waste, 

 and then let tlie beemen hustle to get rid of 

 the crop in a hit-or-miss manner. Science 

 in production and demoralization in distri- 

 bution! Let the beemen do their own or- 

 ganizing; we will teach new comers in tlie 

 apicultural ranks how to compete with them 

 in producing honey; then they can all get 

 into the grand squabble in selling their 

 honey. That is just what we had last year 

 in the West, and it was a grand squabble, I 

 can assure you. Some of our brothers have 

 a lot of honey to carry over because they 

 got caught at the wrong time or were not 

 willing to cut the price low enough. I know- 

 some men who have had to hold extracted 

 honey for three years before selling it, and 

 borrowing money all the time to live on. 

 Let us get busy witli a little apicultural 

 business education lest the new beekeepers 

 be forced out by failure to make the busi- 

 ness go. 



I think it is not the right course to limit 

 education, for to do so is useless, any way. 

 The American people are too much in favor 

 of more and more of it. But let us make it 

 broader than we have so far thought possi- 

 ble. Those who have talked limiting educa- 

 tion and production are taking hold of the 

 tail instead of the horns of this proposition. 



The honey industry is not anywhere near 

 the danger of overproduction that fruil- 

 growers face. Mr. Hershiser is wrong when 

 he says that the educational forces have not 

 discouraged further extension of the fruit 

 industry. The Extension Department of the 

 Colorado Agricultural College has been do- 

 ing that very thing. On the w-estern slope 

 of Colorado the people w^ere specializing on 

 fruit too strongly, and the Extension De- 

 partment has been trying to bring in more 

 diversified farming operations, pointing out 

 that we could not profitably compete with 

 eastern orchards if more acreage were plant- 

 ed. I do not think that the advice has been 

 as effective as the actual conditions faced 

 have been. 1 have seen more orchards pulled 

 np than set out in the last few months. 



Mr. Hershiser says the unschooled, untu- 

 tored owner of bees is the menace. True; 

 but he is not the menace in the West. The 

 menace in the West is one hundred or a 

 thousand alert intelligent specialists all try- 

 ing to sell their year's production in sixty 

 days and get their money for it so they can 

 stop some of their loans at ten and fifteen 

 per cent. Some means must be devised to 

 advance twenty-five to fifty per cent of the 

 value of the honey to the producer at once, 

 and then let the honey be held until it can 

 be distributed and sold in the unsupplieil 

 markets. At least seventy-five per cent of 

 the bees in Colorado are owned by men who 

 run them as a business piroposition, and 

 })roduce a commercial article of honey. This, 

 1 believe, is true of the other Inler-monn- 

 tain States. 



1 was told several times by Kansas City 

 grocers that they could sell three times as 

 much comb honey at 15 cents as they could 

 at 20 cents. When comb honey retails in 

 Kansas City at 15 cents what will the ])ro- 

 ducer in Colorado, Utah, or Idaho get f He 

 got this past year $1.75 to .$2.00 a case for 

 24 sections of well-packed honey. His sliip- 

 l)ing-case cost him 19 to 25 cents each, and 

 his 'sections $5.00 to $6.00 per 1000, and 

 other supiDlies in proportion. If he bor- 

 rowed money it cost him ten to fifteen per 

 cent. Comb honey has been retailing in 

 Boulder for some months at 10 to 12y2 cents 

 for beautiful, clear, heavy-weight honey. 

 Some of the grocers lost money on it. These 

 prices are getting down close to the actual 

 cost of production, and some honey has un- 

 doubtedly been sold below it. Let us get 

 together and have some education to change 

 these cunditions. 



