THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



79 



ascertain the exact time of leaving. This 

 is innportant, for you can then present 

 some stiff arguments towards being 

 transferred to that particular tram. 

 The yard foreman may tell you it is 

 impossible to take your car over to the 

 other yard; that he has several cars of 

 livestock, etc., which have to wait with 

 the bees. Tell him that, on account of 

 the extremely perishable nature of bees, 

 confined, you are paying four times the 

 rate on live stock, and, hence, are 

 entitled to and must tiave quick service. 

 If things do not then move, get some 

 head official on the 'phone, and paint a 

 picture in his ear that will stir his soul to 

 action in your behalf. If the owner of 

 the bees does not present the situation 

 as being urgent, the railroad officials are 

 not going to take it seriously. To them, 

 a car of live bees is nothing more than a 

 huge joke, a car of "hot stuff," or a car 

 of "humming birds," I have heard them 

 say, hence it is the bee keeper's place to 

 explain in a forcible manner the value 

 attached and the danger in delay. Rail- 

 road corporations have their systems for 

 economy in service, but they will m.ake 

 exceptions if exceptional cases demand it, 

 and when bees are confined in hives, for 

 five days, the case becomes exceptional. 



SOME MISTAKES. 



Some mistakes, 1 recall, in shipping 

 bees. The use of too few tacks in 

 SCI sens. Screening strong colonies di- 

 rectly over the frames. In accepting a 



car with leaky roof which admitted rain. 

 When unloading from the car, by per- 

 mitting more hives than covers to be 

 hauled. It rained on the bees. I stacked 

 supers of feed-combs in the car on the 

 side track and covered them securely. A 

 local switch engine knocked them over 

 and the bees in town robbed the honey 

 and stung the teamster who, later, at- 

 tempted to load the honey. Next time I 

 shall not keep any feed-combs over. 

 Shipped hives having cracks closed up 

 when moist. Hives dried out during 

 shipment leaking bees. 1 always nail a 

 strip over a suspicious joint, now. 



SHIPPING BEES IN REFRIGERATOR CARS. 



I am looking forward to a radical 

 change over present methods of shipping 

 bees. The ventilated, refrigerator car 

 should have something to offer. One 

 trial I know of was very successful, 

 though the distance was too short for a 

 conclusive test. Bees and brood can be 

 brought through in fair condition in a 

 stock car, but the conditions of worry 

 and excitement to fly are far from ideal. 

 Water will quench their thirst but will 

 not keep bees from trying to get out. 

 The effect of sunshine and heat in a 

 stock car sets them wild. With a dark, 

 cold car, I predict that very little ventila- 

 tion would suffice, and worrying would 

 be alleviated. Has any one any practical 

 experience along these lines, to offer, as 

 a solution to the problem? 



Hebron, Ind., Jan. 15, 1910. 



m^^^^0 



The Psychology of Shaking Bees. 



FRANK G. ODELL. 



CHE highly interesting articles 

 recently published by the Review, 

 dealing with the shaking of bees 

 as a stimulus to honey production, have 

 been received by the bee keeping fra- 

 ternity with that diversity of opinion 

 which might be expected from a craft 



so opinionated and skeptical as ours. 

 Some find the related experiences of Mr. 

 Williams peculiarly coincident with past 

 experiences of their own, which have 

 left their passing mental impression as 

 one of the puzzling things hitherto in- 

 explicable. Others, with that fullness 



