December, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



769 



the returns from the honey are "all vel- 

 vet," but that is poor reasoning. 



Then, there is the man in some line of 

 farming with much non-productive time on 

 his hands, so he devotes it to bees, gets a 

 fair crop, sells it for what he can get and 

 calls it "all profit." Finally, there is the 

 professional beekeeper who has much money 

 invested in it, devotes all the warm season 

 to producing, much of the rest of the year 

 to selling, and the balance to putting his 

 outfit into shape for the active or producing 

 season. How shall he figure his costs? Shall 

 he charge against the honey only the time 

 devoted to producing it or also the time tak- 

 en in selling, and if these two, when does 

 the intermediate or preparatory time get 

 paid for? Shall he figure the different sorts 

 of work at different prices per day or all 

 alike? 



Then, he must figure the interest on his 

 investment, insurance, taxes, depreciation 

 and upkeep. The plot thickens and many a 

 man I have heard exclaim: "Oh, pshaw, I 

 can't bother with all that. I pay my ex- 

 penses and what is left over is profit." Is it? 

 Not by any means. There comes a year 

 when no small part of the equipment has to 

 be replaced, a new auto purchased, lower 

 prices received for the crop and he has to 

 draw on his bank account. Now what is he 

 to live on if not his bank reserve, if he is 

 so fortunate .as to have one. Suppose the 

 next year is bad and there is no crop, and 

 having used up each year most of the cash 

 left after paying the year's expenses, what 

 is he to do? Go to the bank and borrow? 

 The banker at once wants collateral, but if 

 the would-be borrower has none and wants 

 to borrow on his "business," the banker 

 promptly wants to know if it pays. What 

 does it pay? How much is invested in it? 

 And asks a lot more questions which not one 

 beekeeper in perhaps a thousand can ever 

 guess at. 



While you are guessing, let me tell you 

 how I have tried to work it out. 



How to Make the Inventory. 



First, an inventory must be taken. Make 

 a list of every sort of implement you use 

 in the business. This is far from easy and 

 by the time you have finished, you will un- 

 derstand why the store clerks hate and dread 

 "taking stock." 



When the lists are complete, go over them 

 painstakingly, rigorously cross off every 

 item of uncertain or no value. Then set a 

 price on what is left. Place these as con- 

 servatively as you can and, if you are not 

 sure what they should be, discuss them with 

 any well-posted friend you can find. After 

 a couple of years or so, you will be able to 

 do this quickly and more to your satisfac- 

 tion. The idea is to get an estimate of 

 their real worth, i. e., what they are worth 

 to you for use in the business, a sort of 

 compromise between what they would cost 

 you to replace and what they would sell for 

 at forced sale. 



Each year thereafter, when the inventory 

 is all figured, deduct or "cliarge off" 10 per 

 cent for depreciation. In the case of the 

 automobile, deduct l!0 per cent. 



Theoretically, at the end of 10 years, your 

 outfit would stand at zero, but there are al- 

 ways replacements so that the zero seldom 

 arrives. 



Valuation of the Bees in the Inventory. 



Then there is the question of valuing the 

 bees, perhaps the most difficult part of the 

 inventory. How much is a big colony to be 

 valued at? How much a weak one? How 

 much a medium? What is "medium" and 

 what is "strong?" How much more is a 

 pure Italian colony worth than a hybrid 

 one? Suppose the pure Italian one is a lit- 

 tle below medium in strength and the hybrid 

 one is away above normal size for the sea- 

 son? 



I gave it up. Life was too short to 

 bother over it. Now, I ignore the bees to 

 this extent. All hives occupied by a colony 

 of bees are valued at a price equal to the 

 hive if new. Or in other words I put an 

 arbitrary price on every hive with a usable 

 colony in it. I ignore all nuclei, weaklings 

 or queenless colonies, and all "noses," be 

 they "big" or "medium," are counted the 

 same. All empty hives, whether with drawn 

 combs or foundation, go into an "empty" 

 class, prices at not over one-half of that of 

 new ones in the flat. Arbitrary again, but 

 as nearly correct as I can at present guess. 



This is one of the places where it is both 

 wise and necessary to adopt a simple and 

 arbitrary way of estimating the stock. As 

 this inventory is taken "out of season," 

 either in fall or spring, there are no 

 "swarms" nor "queens" nor "cells" nor 

 nuclei to be considered. 



Don't try to make a big showing here, 

 nor to fool yourself by crediting yourself 

 with a lot of stock of indefinite or varying 

 value. 



Valuation of the Beekeeper's Time. 



The next important thing to determine is 

 the charge to make against the business for 

 your services. What are you worth? Are 

 you a carpenter earning $8 a day, a laborer 

 getting $2.50 for the same time or a sal- 

 aried man getting $5000 a year? 



Charge against the business all you think 

 you are worth, be it $500 or $5000 — and then 

 go ahead and earn it. Pay yourself each 

 week or mouth as little as you can get along 

 on until the money from the crop is all in, 

 all bills paid and depreciation charged off, 

 and then you will know if there is any mon- 

 ey left to pay you the rest of your year's 

 salary. 



Everyone making beekeeping a business 

 and depending on it as his chief means of 

 support should charge the business for his 

 whole year's time regardless of how the 

 winter or "idle" season is spent. He may 

 be in Florida or Europe — that is his good 

 fortune — but he is entitled to his pay for 

 the whole year if his efforts have yielded 



