GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1917 



lives another roadside lioney-seller whose 

 sicna is nailed to an oak-tree standing in 

 front of his residence close beside the pave- 

 ment It is shown in the upper ng-ht-hancl 

 corner of the accompanying page of honey- 

 sio-n illustrations. It is an aged but worthy 

 German couple who produce honey here 

 from about twenty colonies of bees, and 

 their advanced years have somewhat de- 

 bilitated them and perhaps robbed them ot 

 some of the ambition of earlier years As 

 the aged man said: "We don't bother 

 ourselves much." In fact, no apiary was 

 in sight, and the appearance of the premises 

 was not as neat as it might have been, ihe 

 sicrn at the roadside had been put up from 

 year to year, and bees have been kept by 

 the proprietor for many years. This road- 

 side honey sign is ordinarily put up when 

 the first crop of honey is taken off and is 

 kept up till this honey is sold. The sign is 

 put up a second time when the second crop 

 of honey is taken off— if the elderly people 

 have time to attend to the selling ot it. 

 It is to be remembered " We don't bother 

 ourselves." The sales here are accordingly 

 rather slow, but apparently sure. Only 

 comb honey is produced and sold by the 

 aged couple. 



Speaking of his honey-selling experi- 

 ences, the aged beekeeper of this home 

 said : " Until within a very few years thei-e 

 was only a dirt road past my house, and 1 

 couldn't sell all of my honey from_ my 

 door then. So I would sell some of it to 

 the stores and some of it to neighboring 

 farmers and friends. But since the road 

 past here has been paved T have had enough 

 automobile customers to buy all the honey 

 I have and more. We don't use any car- 

 tons, but just wrap up the comb-honey 

 sections in paper and pass them out to 

 our customers. I find that I sell more on 

 Sundays than on any other day, and more 

 during the evening than during the day 

 time. The price I got last summer was 18 

 cents a section; but just lately I put the 

 price up to 20 cents a section. Occasion- 

 ally a section will have a little pollen in 

 it, and I sell such a one for 15 cents. The 

 cull and light-weight sections I sell at less 

 than the regular price. It pays to be honest 

 in selling "honey, just as in every other 

 business." I find people will come back to 

 buy of you a second time if you have told 

 them the exact truth about what you have 

 to sell. But the sign out there by the side 

 of the road sells our honey— we don't do 

 very much about it except to put that sign 

 up "when we have honey to sell and when 

 we have time to sell it." 



19 



A STRIKING ROADSIDE SIGN. 



In the upper left-hand corner of the 

 accompanying page illustrating honey-sell- 

 ing signs there will be noticed a picture of 

 sucli a sign made by painting the word 

 honey in large letters on a white-painted 

 hive. This, displayed by the roadside, 

 makes a striking honey-selling sign. While 

 the editor could not learn the details of 

 the honey-selling done at the residence 

 where this sign was displayed, yet he did 

 learn that this sign led to the sale of all 

 the honey produced in a moderate-sized 

 apiary within a few days after the hive 

 sign had been displayed at the roadside. 

 Tliis was on the same main thorofare lead- 

 ing south from Cleveland that has been 

 mentioned repeatedly before in this article. 



AN INDIANA BOY'S SUCCESS. 



Adding to his testimony given to the edi- 

 tor on his automobile trip over the road and 

 country previously described in this article, 

 we wish to add the testimony of a young 

 beekeeper, Chester Bundy, of Converse, 

 Ind. The picture of his roadside honey- 

 sign is to be found at the lower left-hand 

 corner of the accompanying page illustrat- 

 ing roadside honey-signs. Mr. Bundy's 

 testimony is right to the point when he says : 



" I am sending you a post-card picture 

 of my honey - advertising device. T got 

 the cue for it from the advertising number 

 of Gleanings in which Dr. Bonney and 

 others tell about their experience. My sign 

 helped to dispose of more than a thousand 

 pounds of comb honey. Our road is a 

 much-traveled one, and people from five 

 to twenty miles around come and buy honey 

 for themselves and for their friends." 



Such is the testimony of the roadside 

 honey-sellers of this vicinity as to the effi- 

 cacy of the roadside honey-sign, the apiary 

 in full sight of the road, the neatness of 

 the premises about the honey-seller's home, 

 the good results of knowing and telling of 

 bees to prospective customers, the right 

 size and kind of packages, and strict 

 honesty of deals. This testimony from 

 the experience of those interviewed by 

 the editor of Gleanings points its own 

 lessons without further comment. It points 

 out one of the very best methods of selling 

 the honey crop in populous communities, 

 and especially for the small producer of 

 honey. The efficacy of this roadside sell- 

 ing in sparsely settled communities and 

 otf improved roads may be uncertain and 

 perhaps not feasible. But for the bee- 

 keeper in populous communities and near 

 large towns it certainly points out the 

 road to larger and quicker profit. 



