(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



pounds for a trial, and soon saw that an 

 order of that size was only a drop in the 

 bucket. I forthwith ordered four cases 

 more, and about a week later we had a 

 breakdown on the road which wound up my 

 wholesale honey sales for 1915. 



From this method of selling honey I 

 learned that : 



A neat label attracts attention. 



Bright tin caps are preferable to old 

 rusty ones. 



Price cuts a small figure if the honey is 

 irresistible in appearance and taste. 



Dark honey can be bottled and sold, if 

 agreeable in taste. 



A majority of I'etailers are ignorant re- 

 garding honey. 



In regard to the latter I found that many 

 up-to-date storekeepers thought extracted 

 honey was spoiled when candied. Many of 

 them said they Avould try a dozen jars of 

 honey if I would guarantee it not to candy. 



Against this condition I was obdurate, 

 and explained that all extracted honey 

 would candy in time. When I told them 

 lliat this candying was a good test of its 

 purity, T suspect a great many doubted my 

 sanity. If not, they certainly looked as tho 

 they did. I also explained how easy it is to 

 reliquefy this candied honey; and probably 

 by telling this fact I killed some sales, for 

 many would take no more when they found 

 they could liquefy what they had. 



I have sold considerable honey around 

 home in one-gallon till cans; and I find that 

 the only objection to this is the spoiling of 

 the appearance of an otherwise beautiful 

 product. 



I have peddled some honey, but find that 

 ten cents is all one can ask for an eight- 

 ounce jar. For nearly all I have sold whole- 

 sale I have received $1.25 a dozen. Accord- 

 ing to this I am losing five cents a dozen by 

 peddling it. This certainly does not make 



me feel like peddling honey when I can get 

 $1.25 a dozen wholesale. 



From now on I think that I shall confine 

 my efforts to selling from an automobile. 

 By doing this I can sell ten or twelve dozen 

 jars a day; while by peddling, three dozen 

 is quite a day's work. Of course, after one 

 gets his home market educated to use only 

 his own honey he may be able to sell in 

 larger quantities. At present the high prices 

 of everything are tending to make people 

 buy all their commodities in smaller quan- 

 tities. Years ago, when people bought their 

 winter's supply of potatoes and other things 

 in one lot they were cheaper. Now they 

 buy a peck of potatoes at a time, and pay 

 from two to three times what they would 

 by purchasing in bushel lots. The same 

 thing applies to hone-', and few people buy 

 a winter's supply at once. The reason for 

 this is obvious; few people have the ready 

 money to lay in a winter's stock of any- 

 thing. I had only one customer last season 

 who purchased more than a gallon can. He 

 purchased eighteen pounds, and no doubt 

 thought he was buying a supply for life. 



If all consumers would use as much honey 

 as the beekeepers themselves, marketing 

 honey would be simple. Last summer, when 

 I took otf honey I reserved 55 pounds of 

 extracted for our own use, and in a short 

 time little was left. We have a family of 

 nine honey-consumers, and very little in the 

 way of honey escapes. 



My average profit per dozen was 50 cents. 

 Possibly this profit will vary slightly with 

 different localities on account of ditferent 

 prices per pound for honey. Perhaps some 

 beekeepers may feel that it is worth the 

 fifty cents per dozen to bottle and haul the 

 honey around the country. If breakage were 

 bad it probably would take all the profit, 

 but I have yet to break the first jar. 



Springville, N. Y. 



SELLING A CROP BY SAMPLE; HOME TRADE VS. WHOLESALE 



BY GEORGE DODDS 



We started the season of 1915 with 45 

 colonies (35 fair to good ones, and 10 weak 

 ones). T]ie 35 stronger colonies we ran for 

 honey, and the weaker ones for increase. 

 About 20 colonies were run for extracted 

 honey, and 15 for comb. The white crop 

 amounted to 1850 lbs. extracted honey, and 

 1000 sections. The buckwheat flow was a 

 total failure, and I had to feed for winter. 



As this was the first time I ever produced 

 any extracted honey I had to do some figur- 

 ing to get rid of it at any price at all, as I 

 liad no call for tliis kind of honey. First, 



I ran a small advertisement in our home 

 paper to let people know I had extracted 

 honey. About the last week in August I 

 inserted the following: 



A TON OF HONEY FOR SALE. 



Bring a container on or before Sept. 5 and 

 get your winter's supply of white extracted 

 honey direct from the tank at 10 cts. per lb. 

 A valuable honey-recipe book given witli every 

 order. After that date old prices will prevail 

 — 5-Ib. pail, 60 cts.; 101b. pail, $1.10; also 

 comb honey by the section or family size case 

 (15 sections). Geo. Dodds. 



During the ten days previous to Septem- 



