50 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15 



ing the package somewhat, and by giving 

 the bees a good feed of syrup just before 

 starting on their journey, the l-'ss during 

 shipment has been almost entirely eliminat- 

 ed. 



It occurred to us that, if we took the old 

 pound package of years ago and placed there- 

 in a series of slats so that the bunch of bees 

 would have something on which to cluster 

 without having to hang to each other, as in 

 a swarm, one difficulty, at least, could be 

 overcome, for in the old pound cages there 

 was no form of support except at the top and 

 sides. The consequence was that the bees 

 were obliged to cling to each other anywhere 

 from two to five days continuously, depend- 

 ing on the length of the journey. This, it 

 seemed to us, caused unnecessary bodily 

 strain on the bees. As we wished to avoid 

 the use of combs for the reason named, we 

 made artificial supports of sawn slats that 

 answered in lieu of a comb; then after put- 

 ting the bees in the cage, and just after they 

 start on their journey, we give them a feed 

 of thick syrup — enough to fill their sacs full 

 This renders it unnecessary for them to draw 

 on the queen-cage candy already in the cage; 

 for we calculated that the supply of syrup in 

 the honey-sac of each bee would furnish a 

 form of sustenance that would be safer and 

 better than queen-cage candy, which, to say 

 the least, is an unnatural food. 



'"•-■»£;-^i^^J 



FIG. 1. 



The form of cage which we use is shown 

 in Fig. 1. The illustration, however, does 

 not show the series of slats running length- 

 wise through the cage, and on which the 

 bees hang for support while en route. 



The question may be asked how the bees 

 are fed through the wire cloth This might 

 be done in several ways; but the plan our 

 apiarist adopted was to paint the syrup 

 around the wire cloth until the bees had 



taken up a liberal supply for the journey. 

 They could be fed anotiier way by inverting 

 a Mason jar containing syrup covered with 

 cheese cloth, and placing the jar and cloth, 

 when inverted, on the wire cloth. But this 

 would be a slower process, and would be no 

 better in the end. 



It may be interesting to the reader to know 

 how bees are prepared for shipment in such 

 packages. In the first place we have a wire- 

 cloth swarm box capable of holding anywhere 

 from six to eight pounds of bees. Through 

 the top of this is a square hole large enough 

 to admit the mouth of an oblong tin tunnel, 

 which is of such shape and size that a frame 

 well covered with bees can be shaken in it; 

 and the bees, as they fall off, slide down the 

 smooth surface of the tin into the swarm box 

 below. One or two frames may be shaken 

 from any particular colony. If we expect to 

 put up a dozen packages we may shake some 

 four or five different colonies, one, two, 

 three, or more combs as the hive can spare. 

 But the beauty of putting up bees in this 

 form lies in the fact that we are not obliged 

 to take them all from one colony; and, as we 

 shall show, the queen to go with each pack- 

 age may be taken from an entirely separate 

 colony or nucleus. When shipping bees on 

 combs in the nucleus form it is necessary to 

 take both queens and bees from one hive; 

 but the bees and queens in pound packages 

 may come from half a dozen colonies. In 

 well-regulated apiaries there will always be 

 a few colonies that can spare a few bees with- 

 out detriment to their brood better than 

 others; accordingly, when we fill up this 

 swarm box or wire-cloth cage we draw from 

 those stocks that can best afford the bees. 



But perhaps the reader may ask how we 

 keep them from fighting; and then if we take 

 a queen from one hive, and the bees from 

 two or three others, how we prevent their 

 killing the queen. All this is very simple. 

 After the requisite quantity of bees has been 

 shaken into the swarm box, as shown in the 

 different views of Fig. 2, the tunnel is lifted 

 off and the opening closed with a slide. The 

 bees are then put away in a cool room and 

 left there over night. In the meantime a 

 Mason jar containing sugar syrup is inverted 

 over the wire cloth of the swarm box so the 

 bees can take syrup through the night. The 

 next morning this box of bees is taken over 

 to the workshop and placed beside the vari- 

 ous pound cages that are to be f illedwith bees. 

 One of the cages is placed on a pair of scales. 

 The bees are given a jouncing on the floor 

 so they will be dumped in the bottom of the 

 swarm box en masse. They are then scoop- 

 ed up by dipperfuls and dumped in the cage 

 until the dial shows one pound or half a 

 pound, as the case may be. The cover of 

 the cage is then put on, when another pack- 

 age is filled in a like manner, and so on un- 

 til all or nearly all the bees from the afore- 

 said swarm box are put in various packages. 

 The next operation is to take the queens one 

 by one from as many nuclei of the grade and 

 price required, and, by lifting the wire-cloth 

 covers at one corner, run them in one by 



