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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



that need not necessarily decide that the 

 owner, the purchaser, must bear any 

 and all losses. On the contrary. I say 

 that the shipper of bees ougnt in all cases 

 to bear any loss in shipping. Under no 

 circumstances would I have bees shipped 

 to me unless the shipper would guarantee 

 safe arrival in perfect condition. The 

 purchaser has nothing whatever to do 

 with preparing the bees for shipment; the 

 seller prepares the bees for shipment, 

 hence it is "up to him'" to so prepare the 

 bees that they will bear shipment with 

 safety. It is no excuse to say this can't 

 always be done, because it can. To illus- 

 trate: A colony might be smothered by 

 setting something on top of it, thus shut- 

 ting off ventilation. This can be pre - 

 vented by nailing two strips of wood 

 across the top, thus making it impossible 

 to shut off ventilation. 



Broken down combs can be entirely 

 avoided by using old brood combs built on 

 wired foundation. 



In the successful shipping of bees there 

 is no more important factor than the age 

 of the bees. Old bees are worse than 

 worthless, unless the distance is very 

 short. On this subject, I think there never 

 was written a better article than one con- 

 tributed to the Review, about 20 years 

 ago, by E. F. Nebel, of High Hill, Mo. It 

 reads as follows: 



In your leader of March you have given 

 nearly all the principal points for ship- 

 ping bees, by the pound, in nucleus form, 

 and in full colonies. 1 might add a few 

 suggestions, having put up for shipment 

 many a nucleus, full colony, and hundreds 

 of pounds of bees. In only one instance 

 was there a partial failure, and this was 

 owing to the great distance and the earli. 

 ness of the season. This shipment con- 

 sisted of 46 lbs. of bees sent to Manitoba, 

 May 10th, 1888. 11 lbs. of this con- 

 signment died while en route. The cause 

 being mainly that three lbs. had to be 

 put in each package, and this necessitated 

 the taking of the entire force from each 

 colony, which at this date included many 

 old bees. 



With us the breeding season is only 

 nicely under way by the first of April: so 

 that by the 1 0th of May we have not very 

 many young bees. Old bees do not 

 amount to much for successful shipping 



when long confined and often disturbed 

 which is the case while in transit. 



When preparing bees for shipment I 

 make it a point to secure mostly all young 

 bees that have not done much field work; 

 this can be accomplished oy removing the 

 colony to a new location and placing a 

 new hive, with several frames of brood 

 from the former, on the old stand to re- 

 ceive the old working force that goes to 

 the field during the day; then late in the 

 afternoon proceed to confine the bees in 

 their packages for the next day's ship- 

 ment. This preparation is made for nu- 

 clei and bees by the pound. Full colonies 

 ought also to be made up the previous 

 day by giving water, seeing that their 

 queen is in good condition, that they have 

 plenty of food, spacing the frames to re- 

 mam so permanently while en route. The 

 next morning tack wire cloth above, then 

 close the entrance and we have all the 

 force that belongs to a full colony leav- 

 ing no stragglers behind from colonies 

 shipped. 



When nuclei and bees by the pound are 

 made up of young bees as above, even 

 for several thousand miles travel, there is 

 no complaint received that "half the bees 

 arrived dead;" on the other hand there 

 comes a notice that " bees arrived in good 

 condition only a few, three or four dead." 



Bees purchased by the pound when 

 most of them are old field-workers are of 

 very little use to the purchaser in building 

 up a colony. Old bees sent out with 

 nuclei are not so bad; in this case the 

 brood accompanying will hatch in time to 

 take the place of the veterans. 



A great mistake many make is in buy- 

 ing bees too early in the season before 

 the wintering force disappears. This ap- 

 plies mostly to bees purchased by the 

 pound. 



In preparing packages for shipment in 

 very warm weather, plenty of ventilation 

 is given by the aid of wire cloth at top 

 and bottom, and a projection of one half 

 inch is made by tacking on strips over 

 the wire cloth across the ends, at top and 

 bottom to prevent anything from being 

 placed on the packages, close to the wire 

 cloth, to exclude proper ventilation, or to 

 have the packages set flat on the floor so 

 air cannot pass underneath; then, too, 

 plenty of space is given on sides and top 

 to give a chance to spread the cluster 

 should they be placed in too warm quar- 

 ters. 



In case of reaching a colder climate 

 they will readily cluster compactly to 

 meet their necessary demands for warmth. 



When shipping colonies or nuclei it is 

 but very little trouble to partly fill a comb 



