96 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1922 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



"Extracted Honey." It is misleading to 

 the uninformed. A prominent business man 

 came to my place not long ago to buy some 

 honey. He said, "I like your honey for I 

 know it is real bee honey. I can get extract 

 of honey at the stores; but I want real hon- 

 ey." Another man told me once, "I prefer 

 your honey to that honey extract sold in 

 the stores." We laugh at this ignorance, 

 but it reminds me of a story. Hcie met 

 Archie and said, ' ' Archie, I haf a goot choke 

 on you. After this ven you kisses your vife 

 you better pull down der curtains for I zaw 

 you kiss your vife last night." Archie re- 

 plied, "Ah, Ikie, der laff ish on you, der 

 laff ish on you. I vas not at home at all 

 lasht night." So while we are laughing at 

 the other fellow's ignorance, let us be sure 

 "der laff ish not on us." If the public is 

 ignorant of matters pertaining to honey, 

 who is to blame, they for not learning, or 

 we for not enlightening them? Since bee- 

 keeping is our business, and we have honey 

 for sale, I believe "der laff ish on us." 



Vincennes, Ind. Jay Smith. 



« * * 



In Porto Rico.— ^^«^^^.«P"\g ^^ ^"l}^ 



Kieo is at a low ebb. 

 I know of one firm that has some thousand 

 colonies, which have not yielded an average 

 of 25 pounds per colony in the past three 

 years. This low yield, owing largely to 

 overcrowding, coupled with the low price of 

 honey, has simply stagnated all activity 

 among the beekeepers. I am led to believe 

 there is considerable honey ready for ex- 

 tracting which has been left with the bees, 

 as it would hardly pay for the cost of ex- 

 tracting it. 



Many apiaries are located in such inacces- 

 sible places that it is impossible tc reach 

 them by any wheeled vehicle. This means 

 all supplies and all honey extracted must 

 be transported to the nearest usable road 

 on the heads of peons (laborers) or by small 

 burros which carry from 100 to 150 pounds 

 a load. 



When delivered to the road the honey is 

 emptied into fifty-gallon barrels. From this 

 point it is taken in motor trucks to the 

 nearest coast town which is visited by the 

 steamships. All the island transportation is 

 still at the high war-time rates or worse. 

 Local handling of freights now must be done 

 by means of motor trucks. The price of gaso- 

 line averages about 50 cents a gallon, and 

 there is no talk of profiteering. It frequent- 

 ly happens the steamship is delayed. Then 

 the barrels of honey must be left in storage 

 at a price. Unless there is a dock at the 

 port, the honey must be lightered out to the 

 steamship by means of small flat -bottomed 

 boats, also at a price. So it can readily be 

 understood that expenses jump when you 

 figure there is a payment to be made for 



each separate handling — which is only right, 

 but it necessarily raises the cost of produc- 

 tion. 



To recapitulate: First, you have the cost 

 of the empty barrel, sold today for about 

 $5.50 each; next, two to three pounds of 

 parrowax to wax the inside of the barrel; 

 delivery of empty barrel to apiary; cost of 

 delivery of honey to port; cost of lighterage, 

 steamship freight and insurance; cost of 

 handling in New York City, if sold there, 

 plus the fixed charge of the commission man 

 making sale. When all these fixed charges 

 are met, you will be lucky if you do not re- 

 ceive a bill for costs which the amount re- 

 ceived for honey did not cover. 



These are some of the reasons that good 

 honey is not worth the cost of extracting at 

 present prices. 



In September of this year fifty-gallon bar- 

 rels of honey had been selling on the island 

 delivered to a port town for $19.00. De- 

 ducting cost of new barrel and transporta- 

 tion, the producer receives about one and 

 eleven-twelfths cents per pound, net. Out 

 of this must be paid labor, rent, upkeep and 

 return on investment. Naturally, it is im- 

 possible to produce honey at this figure. 



Within the past three months the States' 

 price for Porto Eiean honey has advanced 

 about SO cents a gallon. This will help, but 

 this price will not leave a balance on the 

 right side of the ledger. With these prices, 

 there is little doubt many small apiaries will 

 be allowed to dwindle away until there is 

 nothing left but empty hives and damaged 

 frames. Penn G. Snyder. 



Aibonito, Porto Eico. 



» * * 



Tn Utah Utf'h will come up to next sea- 

 son well cleaned up on her 

 two previous honey crops with very little 

 honey held over. Our local market is very 

 good, 100,000 pounds in 60-pound cans be- 

 ing sold in this valley besides the bottled 

 goods sold in the stores. There are perhaps 

 .35,000 people in Cache Valley, so tliis means 

 that these people have bought at least three 

 j)ounds per capita in the last six months. 



The beekepers of Utah are looking ahead 

 with much pleasure to the meeting of the 

 Honey Producers ' League to be held in Salt 

 Lake City in January, but we were disap- 

 pointed in not being favored by the Gov- 

 ernment men who held two meetings in Col- 

 orado, til en flew right over to California. 



While there are perhaps not many places 

 where beekeepers need instruction more 

 than we do here, we are not without some 

 merit, for we have one beekeeper who pro- 

 duced 150 tons of honey last season. After 

 the Government finds out that there is such 

 a place in V\nh on tliO map, we may be no- 

 ticed next time. M, A, Gill. 



Hyrum, Utah. 



