IC 



G-LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1917 



IMPORTANCE OP THE PACKAGE. 



" Right here something should be said 

 about the importance of appearance and 

 tlie containers in which you offer honey 

 for sale to travelers. The traveler who 

 visiis your home for the first time to buy 

 honey, and who is ignorant of honey con- 

 ditions (as the public generally is) is sus- 

 picious as to the quality and purity of all 

 honey. For this reason he wants to see 

 the honey that he is to buy before he buys 

 it. Therefore they prefer honey in glass 

 jars — at first, any way. So my one-pound 

 package is a round glass jar. At first 1 

 sold two-pound and three-pound packages 

 in tin pails, but later I cut out both of 

 these tin packages, as my experience taught 

 me that customers did not wish to buy 

 honey in these amounts out of sight and 

 unseen. I now sell three pounds in a 

 quart Mason jar. I sell five pounds in a 

 friction-top tin pail, but tliis is because I 

 can not secure any five-pound glass con- 

 tainer. The six-pound package is a two- 

 quart Mason jar. The largest package I 

 sell, ten pounds, is contained in a friction- 

 top pail. A good many people ask me 

 why I have such a variety of packages and 

 of so many different sizes. I think it is 

 necessary to have this variety in order best 

 to satisfy customers and sell the most honey. 

 But if I were to have but one package it 

 would be the three-pound Mason glass jar. 

 I have found this the most popular, and 

 sell the most of them. But just to show 

 that people will take something else than 

 what they exactly want in the honey line, 

 I remember that one day I sold nine ten- 

 pound pails to customers, most of whom 

 wanted a five or six pound package of 

 honey, neither of which I chanced to have 

 on that particular day. 



" What I would emphasize most of all 

 about honey - packages is that customers 

 want to see their honey before buying, 

 and so the glass package is preferable to 

 the tin in almost every instance. 



" Right liere, in connection with pack- 

 ages, perhaps comes in the question of 

 the label used by me. I use an ordinai-y 

 printer's stock label in which a blank is 

 left for the name of the linney-seller, and 

 T write my name on such label by hand. 

 The label is neatly printed in colors, and I 

 write on it the size, my name, and the net 

 weight of the package. 



THE MOST IMPORTANT SALES FACTOR. 



" If you a.sk me what is the most im- 

 portant factor in selling honey at one's 

 home, T liai'dly know how to answer you. 

 The apiary, a hundred yards northeast of 



my home, and in plain sight from the road 

 for a considerable distance either way, 

 probably first attracts the attention of most 

 passersby. The honey-sign directly in 

 fiont of the house, and close up to the 

 roadside, probably stops most of the pros- 

 pective buyers. But you have not yet sold 

 to the man who has both seen your apiary 

 and has stopped in front of your house to 

 inquire about the purchase of honey. You 

 have not got your money yet. But there 

 are certain considerations that have a lot 

 to do with inducing the prospective custom- 

 er to become a buyer. Almost invariably 

 he is curious about bees and will inquire 

 about the apiary in sight and ask all kinds 

 of questions in general about bees. Accord- 

 ingly, it is very essential that the honey- 

 seller be a practical and well-versed bee- 

 man so that he can answer such questions. 

 Just as soon as the prospective buyer sees 

 that the seller is a beeman and can answer 

 his questions he concludes that he is a real 

 honey-producer, and that his honey must 

 be all right. I have known as high as half 

 a dozen autos to be standing in front of my 

 home at one time while their occupants were 

 crowded about me asldng questions of all 

 sorts about bees and honey. On Sundays 

 especially I seem sometimes to be conduct- 

 ing a regular educational institution on 

 bees. I remember once selling $7.00 worth 

 of honey to the occupants of five machines 

 which stopped at one time at my house, 

 and this sale came after I had answered 

 a whole battery of questions from these 

 people about honey and about bees. So 

 I will say that a thoro knowledge of bees 

 and a knack of telling this knowledge to 

 your prospective customers is a very im- 

 portant factor in selling honey at the road- 

 side. 



A FRONT-PORCH HONEY DISPLAY HELPS 



" I have found another very great aid to 

 selling honey at home is a display of honey 

 placed on a table on the front porch where 

 it can be easily seen from the road. I make 

 up such a honey display and place it on my 

 front porch, especially on holidays or other 

 days when a specially large number of 

 automobilists are likely to be passing our 

 way. This front-porch display is a de- 

 cided help in securing customers. 



UNIQUE BCJSINESS CARD. 



'' Another thing that has helped to bring 

 me customers, I think, is tlie rather unique 

 business card that I give to all my custom- 

 ers and to all my prospective customers. 

 It is printed on a good quality of card- 

 board, two and a half by four inches. The 

 uniciue and striking feature of this busi- 



