774 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



Where lovely women graced the princely halls; 

 Where brave men aiiswdred to the bugle-calls; 

 Where war-steeds chafed impatient in their stalls; 

 Scarce aught remains but scattered brush and 

 stone. 



MANUM'S LONG DISTANCE MAILING-CAGE. 



THE USK OF HONEY IN COMBINATION WITH 

 CANDY. 



By A. E. Mauum. 



I niiiiled you a few days ago one of my long- 

 distance mailing queen cages for your inspec- 

 tion and criticism. I was led to do so by re- 

 ceiving two of your longdistance queen-cages, 

 already provisioned, addressed, and stamped, 

 with a request that I use them for mailing two 

 queens to one of your customers in Australia. 



My first thought was, upon receiving your 

 cages, that I would not use them, but would 

 use mine instead; but upon further considera- 

 tion I concluded to use them just as you had 

 them prepan d, inasmuch as T had an order for 

 queens direct from Australia. I thought it a 

 grand opportunity for iTie to test the merits of 

 the two cages. One of the queens sent in your 

 cage was the same age. and an own sister of 

 the one sent in my cagi', and. to ail appearance, 

 the two queens were alike. I am thus particu- 

 lar in giving you these points, that you may 

 join me in watching results. 



The reason why I hesitated to use your cage 

 was because I had tried the same cage before 

 for mailing queens to Australia, and failed in 

 my attempt to get queens there alive; and as 

 orders for queens continued to arrive from that 

 source, I dicided to attempt the construction 

 of a cage in which I could safely mail queens 

 to the distant land above mentioned; and the 

 cage I sent you is the result of much study of 

 the requirements of the bees while on so long a 

 journey. I took into consideration the changes 

 in temperature they would necessarily experi- 

 ence on that long journey. 



You will notice that, in the center of the 

 cage, there is a compartment into which a 

 small piece of comb honey is placed, there be- 

 ing 6 openings, or passageways, to this com- 

 partment, so that the bees can enter it from 

 four sides, and partake of honey whenever they 

 desire. There are also four places — two at each 

 end of the cage — for the reception of the ordi- 

 nary (sugar and honey) queen-candy, which I 

 make as hard as possible with my hands. 



My object in using honey in this long-dis- 

 tance cage is to give the bees a small ration of 

 their natural food, which I anticipate will last 

 them a good portion of the journey; but should 

 it fail to do so they have the candy to fall back 

 on. The honey is placed in the center of the 

 cage in order to balance the cage, and also that 

 the bees may have access to the honey from 

 each chamber as well as to the candy; hence 

 they can partake of either candy or honey 

 from whichever chamber they may happen to 

 be in. There aie also four passageways through 

 which the bees can pass from one chamber to 

 the other. Each chamber is 2xl}2X% inch, 

 making ample room in each chamber for 75 or 

 80 bees, and food enough in the cage to last at 

 least (30 days. The outside dimensions of the 

 cage are 7^ix2>^xl}g inch, and it weighs, when 

 ready to mail, 5 oz., the same as your cage. 



Now in regard to your cage, I consider the 

 07ie chamber too small for the number of bees I 

 consider desirable to accompany the queen od 

 so long a journey, since it often takes 40 days 

 for them to reach their destination. And, 

 again, in your cag(! the bees are obliged to sub- 

 si.-t entirely upon candy. I am aware that 

 yours is much the cheaper cage to make; but 

 when we warrant the safe arrival of queens, it 

 is to our advantage to use the cage that will 

 carry the greater number through safely, be- 

 cause it would require many cages to equal the 

 loss of one queen. And, on the other hand, if 

 we do not guarantee the safe arrival of queens, 

 it is to our advantage to look after the welfare 

 of our customers. It always gives me great 

 pleasure to receive cheerful letters from my 

 customers, as I am sure it does you. 



Bristol, Vt. 



[This cage, I must acknowledge, is a better 

 one than the one we have been using for the 

 same purpose. Indeed, I was so well pleased 

 with its general construction that I made ar- 

 rangements with friend M. whereby we could 

 manufacture and use it for our own business. 



Instead of being made of a solid block bored 

 out, it is made of strips of wood dovetailed to- 

 gether as shown. This construction secures at. 

 once both lightness and strength— very impor- 

 tant factors, by the way, in an export mailing- 

 cage. 



Like our export Benton it has holes at each 

 end to take the prepared candy food, and in ad- 

 dition has a little chunk of good sealed honey 

 secured in the center. This was, as I judge by 

 the sample before me, cut out the required siz& 

 to fill the oval hole in the block at E, and was 

 then given to the bees just long enough for 



