770 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 1922 



enough to enable him to take a vacation 

 part of the year. 



The man running a small apiary as a 

 "side line" and having to spend part of 

 his time at some other business will have to 

 decide for himself just what his time de- 

 voted to the bees is worth. He may be paid 

 by the year at some business and yet have 

 enough free time to care for his bees, or he 

 may have a profession giving a fair and 

 steady income. Such persons will have to 

 determine for themselves how much time 

 they devote to the bees and what it is 

 worth. It is worth something and the bee 

 business should be charged with it. 

 Cost of Operating a Colony of Bees a Year. 



A year or two before the war two of us 

 independently of each other figured the cost 

 of operating a colony of bees for one year. 

 We figured the actual time we devoted to 

 the care of the colony for a year, including 

 the extracting of the honey, valuing our 

 time at $5.00 per day. We figured interest 

 on the investment and depreciation. We 

 both arrived at $2.00 as the cost of operat- 

 ing a colony for one year, including the 

 labor of extracting 100 pounds of honey. 



This, of course, inclucled no "overhead'' 

 and no rent nor taxes, simply labor, depre- 

 ciation and interest. It was of only rela- 

 tive value, giving a rough idea of costs. 

 Now, it would be at least double as much. 



How to Charge Time Used in Selling Honey. 



If a commercial producer uses his time 

 during the "idle" season to sell honey, he 

 may very properly pay himself his salary as 

 during the rest of the year, but it is charged 

 against the producing account. All profit 

 on sales goes into an account by itself, just 

 as if the honey was bought from another 



producer or as if the returns were interest 

 from an investment in stocks or bonds. If 

 a producer chooses to use his idle time to 

 sell honey, let him remember that that time 

 has been paid for by the producing end of 

 the business and is in the cost of the honey. 

 Profit on the honey is to be considered just 

 like income from any merchandise bought 

 and sold, and must not be confused with the 

 production part of the business. 



To recapitulate: Make an inventory of 

 everything pertaining to the business and 

 price it conservatively. Do not forget a 

 working capital of cash. Put a value on 

 your time at least equal to what you can 

 earn in the business you have previously fol- 

 lowed. Charge the business with your sal- 

 ary, with interest on the investment, insur- 

 ance, rent of ground and building occupied, 

 and expense of hired labor; deduct at the end 

 of the year 10 per cent from the inventory, 

 and you will then know what your business 

 lias cost for the year. If the bees gave an 

 average yield of 100 pounds per colony and 

 you had 500 colonies, you get 50,000 pounds; 

 til en divide the total annual cost as above 

 indicated by 50,000 and you will know what 

 your honey cost per pound. If you can not 

 sell it for as much, the loss must come out 

 of your "salary," and it is up to you to in- 

 crease production or decrease expenses or 

 both or else the business will soon belong 

 to someone else. 



If our business is to be worthy of re- 

 spect, we must knoAV "costs," outgo as well 

 as income. Just now, this part of it is more 

 important than any discussions of equip- 

 ment or manipulation. It is a dry subject, 

 but a vital one, and we have got to know it 

 and know every bit of it. 



Providence, R. I. 



THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT 



Some Reasons for Lack of Success 



of Co-operation cAmong Honey 



^roduceis 



By William H. Wolford 



CO- O P E R A- 

 TION, in its 

 various as- 

 pects, is a child 

 of the marketing 

 problem. It has 

 been born; to 

 murder it is 

 crime; to be in- 

 strumental in per- 

 mitting its suicide is to admit defeat and 

 an inability to cope with a factor looming 

 in the path of an industry's internal expan- 

 sian. Co-operation among beekeepers is in 

 its infancy. It should not be strangled; it 

 should not be allowed to die of disease; 

 rather, it should be fostered, nursed, and 

 properly eared for until it reaches a matur- 

 ity that will insure its own protectioji. 



The history of co-operative enterprises in 

 the United States has not been written in 

 startling successes. A far greater part of 

 them have resulted, sooner or later, in fail- 

 ures. The reasons have been various. Con- 



sumers c o -ope- 

 ration has suf- 

 fered badly from 

 the mobility of 

 the American 

 p o p u 1 a t i u. 

 Wholesale a n d 

 retail co-opera- 

 tion has been un- 

 dermined by Ji 

 low code of business ethics. Producers' co- 

 operation, including that of honey produc- 

 ers, lies straining itself in the mud of unjust 

 susijicion and mistrust in general. 

 A Start Has Been Made. 

 Already there have been numerous at- 

 tempts to establish organized co-operation 

 among beekeepers in certain localities. Cali- 

 fornia has had them. New York is about to 

 try one. All have met with disheartening 

 o])position, and many have suffered so se- 

 verely from internal upheavals and external 

 wounds launched by opposing interests that 

 tliev have lost much of their usefulness or 



