116 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT ^F THE 



cost me $35.00 and all over weight will 

 be extra. 



Mr. Baldridge — ^How did you fasten 

 the hives to the car so that they would 

 not shove about? 



Mr. Ahlers — They are set up endways 

 against the car. I am going to put my 

 stringers this time lengthwise. Set 

 tight as they can one hive against the 

 other, and when you get to your last 

 row, when you get to the door, you nail 

 an upright plank, anthing you have, 1 

 have some 4x14 there; thiey will hold 

 it. Put in heavy cross bars and have 

 wedges there. After the car runs and 

 bumps there will be some slack; take 

 up the slack the first chance you get. 

 Put a wide enough piece at the bottom 

 where your press rests or otherwise 

 when your car slacks the nails may 

 break off and your press will knock 

 down and your bees will be all in a 

 pile. I had part of my bees bumped 

 together shipping once when they were 

 leaning in all kinds of shape, yet they 

 shipped pretty well. I had 5,000 lbs. of 

 honey that time; then the railroad 

 company paid for it besides. 



Mr. Dadant — How long does it take 

 to make the trip? 



Mr. Ahlers — The bees ought not to 

 be confined over 4 days. The route I 

 want to ship on, the Missouri Pacific, 

 won't guarantee to ship them under six 

 days if Sunday does not intervene. I 

 shipped them down from Illinois in 

 three days. 



Mr. France — Mr. Ahlers, if I coupled 

 on to your car a carload of farm stock 

 would I not get transportation with it? 



Mr. Ahlers — I expect you would. 



Mr. France — See the injustice then of 

 being a bee-keeper. 



Mr. Ahlers — I believe I have Mr. 

 France to thank for this — They have 

 reduced the minimum weight of a car- 

 load of bees, will cost $50 more. They 

 will charge me just as much for 14,000 

 and 20,000, and for the balance will 

 charge us high rate. I objected to that 

 at the time, you may remember. 



Mr. Baldridge — There is a gentleman 

 in this room who has shipped bees in a 

 refrigerator car. I should like to hear 

 from him, 



I shipped one carlot in a refrigerator 

 car and they shipped through pretty' 

 fairly. I had probably 60 queenless 

 hives out of 300, but the queens might 

 not have been mated. I had all kinds 

 of inferior queens, probably 60 of them 

 worthless. I did not blame it on the 



refrigerator car. The refrigerator I 

 think ought to be closed for 24 hours 

 before you load, so that the bees get 

 well frozen up before you start them 

 off. My car was so hot that the ice 

 melted before I got 20 miles away from 

 there. Most of the ice was gone when 

 I had moved 90 miles. 



Mr. Bull — I shipped a car once and 

 used the refrigerator car and didn't 

 use any ice; it was not very hot and I 

 had only 100 colonies. 



I left the ventilators open while the 

 car was in motion but as soon as it 

 stopped I was sidetracked in the freight 

 yard in Chicago and it kept me busy 

 carrying water. Once before I used 

 the open side car and came up to Chi- 

 cago; there was a storm and it pretty 

 nearly rained me out. 



A member — May I ask Mr. Ahlers 

 how much water you carried along to 

 water the bees. 



Mr. Ahlers — I expect about 200 gal- 

 lons. I will ship from the south about 

 the first of May. It will be about 85 

 degrees when I ship from there. It 

 is very comfortable in light clothes at 

 85, but when those bees get packed in 

 the car it is going to be pretty hot 

 when the car is not running. 



Mr. Baldridge — Mr. Bradley is the 

 gentleman I referred to. I would like 

 to hear from him. He shipped bees 

 to Missouri at one time in a refrigera- 

 tor car. 



Mr. Bardley — Some years ago, at 

 Libertyville, 111. the honey season is 

 from July 20th. I had 100 colonies 

 very strong in bees, boiling over, and 

 I knew of a Spanish needle locality in 

 Missouri. I got a refrigerator car, 

 iced it one day before we got ready to 

 load it, and put 100 colonies in it boil- 

 ing over with bees, and; we loaded them 

 in the night. It was in the last of 

 July when the thermometer was 95 

 and higher in the shade in the day- 

 time. We shipped them over to Bur- 

 lington, Missouri; re-iced the car at 

 Burlington, and shipped them down to 

 within about 40 miles above St. Louis. 



They went through to Missouri in 

 fine condition, A No. 1. There was not 

 a pint of dead bees in the hive, but it 

 was cool in the car; it was chilly; and 

 I think bees can be shipped success- 

 fully if the car is iced a day or so be- 

 fore the bees are put in, that the car 

 may be made cold. 



We got a fair crop of Spanish needle 



