92 



&LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1917 



Indies for some large buyers in the city 

 of New York. When these buyers are 

 interviewed and asked what they are 

 going to do with this honey they will 

 give out no information. They simply 

 say that they want the honey and are 

 prepared to pay cash for it. 



2. The market is overloaded with 

 comb honey, and prices are easy. A great 

 deal of Western comb honey is found at 

 some particular points in the East. Some 

 of it has begun to granulate, or, as the 

 saying is, " gone back to sugar." Some 

 large wholesale grocery concerns loaded 

 down with some of this product are try- 

 ing to unload. Some dealers say they 

 will never handle comb honey again. It 

 granulated on their hands last year, and 

 they will not be caught again. 



On the other hand, there seems to be 

 no complaint of Eastern comb honey, nor 

 of Western honey that does not gramdate. 

 Much of this is moving off at fair prices. 

 We have learned of some particular locali- 

 ties in the East where carloads of comb 

 honey are in storage. If this could be 

 held in liquid condition until next season 

 there would need be no particular concern; 

 but it is granulated. 



It is but fair to state that not all West- 

 ern comb honey shows this early tendency 

 to granulate. Much of it will remain 

 liquid as long as the Eastern comb honey. 

 It is but fair to say, also, that Western 

 comb honey, as a rule, will grade higher 

 than Eastern comb honey. The sections 

 are more evenly filled, are whiter, and the 

 product is of good flavor. But because 

 some Western comb honey granulates soon 

 after cold weather sets in, that very fact 

 adversely affects the sale of cdl comb honey. 

 Some Eastern comb - lioney producers are 

 sore over the fact. 



3. Large numbers of extraeted-honey pro- 

 ducers are making plans to produce a large 

 crop next season. Or, if they produce any 

 comb honey, they will run exclusively for 

 extracted. These people are glad that they 

 are not comb-honey producers. The pres- 

 ent good prices on extracted, with the prob- 

 abilities that they will hold for next season, 

 look very encouraging. 



4. A large number of comb-honey pro- 

 ducers are going to change over to extract- 

 ed. The present prices of the liquid prod- 

 uct as compared with the comb have led 

 them to feel that they can make more money 

 producing the former than the latter. 



5. A large nurabei", and perhaps a very 

 great majority, of comb-honey producers 

 east of the Mississippi will continue to pro- 

 duce what they have been producing. They 



have always had good prices, and the de- 

 mand has been quite satisfactory. Then, 

 moreover, they feel that the time will come 

 when there will be a scarcity of comb honey 

 and an overproduction of extracted. 



6. The two past favorable seasons in the 

 East, at least, with good prices, will induce 

 a large number of backlotters and farmers 

 to keep a few bees. They have seen what 

 their neighbors have done in honey produc- 

 tion; and, having discovered that bees pay 

 a larger return on a given investment, will 

 keep a few bees, and, of course, will pro- 

 duce extracted, because that requires less 

 experience. 



7. Two years ago there was an overpro- 

 duction of extracted and an underproduc- 

 tion of good comb honey. Prices on the 

 liquid article were sagging wliile those on 

 comb honey were going up. Two years ago 

 there was an overproduction of potatoes, 

 with the result that some farmers became 

 disgusted. They stopped raising potatoes 

 entirely, and now they wish they had kept 

 on with them. 



The comb-honey producer, remembering 

 some of these peculiar conditions of supply 

 and demand, will reason that a large num- 

 ber of beekeepers will change over to ex- 

 tracted. If they will do as the potato- 

 farmers did, there is a possibility that 

 comb honey may have a very strong demand 

 in 1917 and '18. 



8. We are reliably informed that in some 

 of the alfalfa districts and in the arid West 

 there are a good many carloads of comb 

 honey in storage seeking a market. There 

 is a great deal more in the Eastern markets, 

 and this is granulated on the hands of the 

 dealer. In some of the alfalfa districts bee- 

 keepers are wishing they had produced ex- 

 tracted instead of comb ; and some of them 

 are already saying that they will produce 

 extracted honey next season. 



9. As Wesley Foster says in his depart- 

 ment in this issue the cost of changing over 

 from comb to extracted honey producing is 

 no small item ; but perhaps the time has now 

 arrived when the production of alfalfa comb 

 honey has exceeded its demand. 



10. There is one thing the beekeeper should 

 remember, and that is, that the business of 

 bottling honey has been growing by leaps 

 and bounds. The public is just waking up 

 1 o the fact that honey is a really cheap food 

 and a necessary one — a food that ought to be 

 in every home like ordinary granulated 

 sugar. It is now found in our large gro- 

 ( ei'ies as it never was before. Grocers will 

 luandle bottled honey when they will not 

 touch comb honey. For this reason the 

 demand for extracted will continue strong. 



