SEPTEMBER 1, 1914 



663 



Beekeeping Among the Kocme: 



Wesley Foster, 



eir. 



HONEY-CROP REPORTING. 



There will doubtless be considerable vari- 

 ance in tlie reports sent to the Bureau of 

 Statistics at Washinglon. Some of the re- 

 porters will report for their own apiaries 

 only, while others will report for their dis- 

 trict or county. The benefit on the whole is 

 ,i;oing' to be considerable, as can be seen 

 from the report already sent out. 

 « * » 



THE HONEY CROP. 



Honey-crop conditions can now be pretty 

 well defined. The shipping crop will not be 

 as large from Colorado as last year. The 

 conditions have not been so generally favor- 

 able. In the vicinity of Boulder the produc- 

 tion will not avei'age one case of comb honey 

 to the colony, while in some districts, not 

 more than twenty miles away, it will double 

 and treble that amount. We think that the 

 lack of several good rains in July is the 

 reason for a short crop near Boulder. The 

 district is overstocked, too, which makes the 

 crop short except in the best years. The 

 bees oi^erated for extracted honey have 

 given a better account of themselves this 

 year than the comb-honey colonies. The 

 flow has been so slow that it is very difficult 

 to get super work done. Swarming has not 

 caused us any trouble this year; in fact, 

 conditions would have been better if there 

 had been more swarming. 



MALICIOUS DESTRUCTION OF BEES. 



My brother, W. H. Foster, has had a 

 severe loss from some disgruntled person 

 attempting the destruction of fifteen colo- 

 nies of bees by pouring kerosene over the 

 bees and frames. Three colonies were de- 

 stroyed outright, and the others weakened 

 \ery seriously. Several hundred pounds of 

 honey were ruined. 



The writer has had his troubles from 

 iioney-thieves, as the following clipping 

 from the Daily Herald, of Boulder, shows: 



CATCHES U. S. TROOPER STEALING HIS HONEY; WES- 

 LEY FOSTER OUTGENERALS SOLDIER, BUT 

 TUMBLES INTO DITCH. 



By superior generalship, Wesley Foster, the apia- 

 rist, last night surprised and identified a federal 

 trooper who is suspected of having been responsible 

 for the theft of about 200 pounds of honey from the 

 Poster beeyard a mile east of Superior. The trooper. 

 Private S'naw, is now under arrest at the federal 

 camp in Superior. 



Foster, accompanied by Elwin Townsend, was re- 

 turning to Boulder on a motorcycle from his beeyard 

 near Lafayette, when, about 7:30 o'clock, he met the 

 soldier near the Superior yard. He stopped to talk 



with the soldier for a few minutes, and, suspecting 

 him, Foster led him to believe that he was coming 

 right into Boulder. 



Instead, as soon as he got to a place where he 

 could hide his machine, Foster dismounted, and, 

 with Townsend, started back to the beeyard. He was 

 armed with the handle of a pitchfork. Entering the 

 beeyard he found Snaw. Then throwing the pitch- 

 fork handle up as though it were a rifle he command- 

 ed the trooper to throw up his hands. The latter 

 obeyed, until, when Foster moved closer, he realized 

 that he was not looking into a rifle. Then he turned 

 and ran for the camp with Foster after him. 



A cross-country race ensued, with Foster gaining 

 all the way. The trooper leaped one ditch and then 

 led Foster to another. In trying to clear the second. 

 Poster stumbled and fell in. Snaw got away. Noth- 

 ing daunted. Poster picked himself up and proceeded 

 to the camp where he made complaint to Lieut. Oliver 

 who is in charge. The latter ordered Snaw, who was 

 the last man to enter camp, to come out. In the 

 darkness, Foster and Townsend identified the man. 



The federal trooper was not alone, haw- 

 ever, as he was with two others who ha\e 

 since been api^rehended and placed under 

 arrest. The other two are striking miners, 

 and the three got away with about 200 lbs. 

 of comb honey in foar raids on the apiary 

 within one week. Since catching these par- 

 ties the yard has not been molested. 



ORGANIZATION AND SELLING. 



0. B. Metcalfe has an article on pages 

 556-557, July 15, on organization in the 

 marketing of honey. . Mr. Metcalfe intimates 

 that the aim of organization in selling is to 

 raise the price of honey. This may be the 

 aim of some organizations, but it should not 

 be the main aim of a selling organization. 

 Organization should be made to bring abour 

 sane distribution, and then the price will 

 largely take care of itself. Demoralizauoa 

 in distributing methods is responsible fot 

 low prices quite as much as beating down 

 the prices by the dealers. The organizatiosi 

 that will push the product into the unsup- 

 Ijlied grocery stores and keep it there will 

 build a market that will take honey at a 

 fair price almost any year. 



Comb honey need not retail for more than 

 fifteen to twenty cents a section, and ex- 

 tracted honey need not cost the consumer 

 more than twenty-five cents for a pound 

 jar to bring the producer a good price. Bui; 

 he will have to have an open channel be- 

 tween his ajjiary and the consumer's table. 

 There cannot be too many buyers, brokers, 

 jobbers, wholesalers, and retailers betweon. 

 Of course they are not competent honey 

 salesmen in many cases. If they were I 

 believe we could pay them their seemingly 

 lieavy toll. 



