Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 2,1980—D19 Honey on rise in Pa and U,S*A. HARRISBURG - Penn sylvania honey production during 1979 totaled 3,034,000 pounds, up 25 percent from 1978. The yield per colony during 1979 averaged 41 pounds per colony, up 10 pounds per colony from 1978, but the number of colonies declined 5 percent to 74,000. Beeswax production for 1979 was 58,000 pounds, up 23 percent from 1978. Sales of all honey in Pennsylvania in 1979 in dicated that an average price of 64.3 cents per pound was received compared to 65.3 cents per pound in 1978. The price of all extracted honey sold wholesale in 1979 averaged 56 cents per pound compared with 54 cen f " per pound in 1978. The price of exU. '•ted, processed, packaged --.iey sold retail averaged 91 cents per pound in 1979, up 3 cents per pound from 1978. The average price per pound for all chunk and comb honey sold in 1979 was 95 cents and 1.15 dollars respectively. The price of beeswax m Pennsylvania during 1979 averaged 1.91 dollars per pound, an mcrease of 19 cents per pound over the 1978 price. Nationally, honey production in 1979 totaled 237 million pounds, up 3 percent from the 1978 level of 230 million pounds. The number of colonies mcreased 2 percent to 4.15 million and yield per colony mcreased to 57.2 pounds from 56.5 m 1978. The production value of the 1979 crop was $l4O million, 12 percent more than in 1978 and 48 percent above 1977. The 1979 average price for all wholesale and retail sales of 59.0 cents was 4.5 cents greater than the 1978 price. The average pnce per pound for various honey sales are: extracted in wholesale lots 55.3 cents, 4.2 cents above 1978; un processed bulk 53.1 cents compared with 48.3 cents in 1978, processed bulk 59.5 cents, 6.9 cents above 1978; processed packaged wholesale 75.0 cents com pared with 69.8 cents the previous year. Processed packaged retail sales averaged 86.0 cents, 5.9 cents above 1978. Wholesale and retail sales of chunk honey averaged $1.17 per pound, 10.0 cents above 1978, Prices for all comb honey averaged $1.25, compared with $1.12 a year earlier. In mid-December, producers reported 37.8 million pounds of honey on hand for sale, compared with stocks of 31.9 million pounds in 1978 and 30.1 million m 1977. Stocks in mid-December were 16 percent of the 1979 production, compared with 14 percent in 1978 and 17 percent in 1977. Beeswax production totaled 3.73 million pounds in 1979, 5 percent less than the 1978 wax production of 3.93 million pounds. The average price of beeswax at $1.75 per pound was 1.0 cent above the 1978 price and 17.0 cents more than m 1977. Übjm»
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers