1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



53 



would require considerable space above 

 the frames to accommodate them, so I 

 made a rim of one inch lumber two 

 inches deep to fit the top of the hives, 

 and covered that with wire-screen, such 

 as is used to screen windows. On top 

 of the wire I put a second rim of >'s- 

 inch stuff to hold the wire firmly in 

 place and stop any leaks that might 

 occur from the buckling of the wire. 

 Before placing the screen on the hive I 

 nailed a piece of Js-inch stuff lightly 

 across the ends of the frames. When 

 the screens were placed in position, the 

 end piece of the screen frame rested 

 on that ;>s inch piece and prevented the 

 frames from bouncing up and down 

 while in transit. The entrances were 

 closed with wire cloth to give upward 

 ventilation. 



Although the weather was warm, as 

 we have it in the South sometimes, 

 there was no provision for watering 

 the bees en route. They were on the 

 road just ten days, traveling about 1000 

 miles. The weather turned quite cold 

 about three days before they reached 

 Alice, but had warmed up again when 

 they arrived. Upon arrival they were 

 moved to their permanent location and 

 released. I did not travel with them, 

 but left them to the tender mercies of 

 the railroads and went through on the 

 passenger trains. When I released 

 them, I went through the hives to see 

 how they had stood the journey. They 

 were all in !perfect condition and most 

 of them had a patch of sealed brood in 

 one or two., frames. I said all were in 

 perfect condition, but there was one 

 colony smashed up pretty badly. Evi- 

 dently it had been dropped by some 

 brakeman or other person who had 

 occasion to handle the shipment. 



I have gone fully into details about 

 this shipment in order to give the 

 reader a fair chance to draw any les- 

 son from It that it may contain. Since 

 that time I have shipped full colonies 

 by express to various distances, from 

 200 to 500 miles in winter and summer, 

 and I have yet to lose the first colony. 

 There is, however, this difference be- 

 tween shipping colonies in winter and 

 summer: If I ship in summer, I place 

 an empty comb filled with water in the 

 hive, or water the bees well just before 

 they are loaded on the car. I have also 

 used a screen only one inch deep. If 

 the colony is not very strong that is 

 sufficient. ' The idea 1 have in mind is 

 to give the bees room enough to clus- 

 ter above the frames, if they desire to 

 do so. 



I have shipped Iframe, 2 frame and 

 3-frame nuclei to various parts of the 

 United States; many as far east as 

 New York State and as far north and 

 west as North Dakota and Minnesota. 

 If any ever failed to reach their desti- 

 nation in perfect condition, the fact 

 was never reported to me. 



In packing nuclei for shipment, I 

 have used the ordinary nucleus ship- 

 ping cage as sent out by our supply 

 houses, and a cage that I make myself, 

 with equal success. The cage I make 

 differs from the factory-made cage in 

 that the ventilation is provided at both 

 sides instead of the bottom and top as 

 in the factory-made cage. If three or 

 more of my cages are shipped in one 

 parcel it is necessary to space them an 

 inch apart for ventilation, while the 

 factory-made cages may be crated 

 closely together. My cage has solid 

 bottom and top. A piece of wood with 



notches to accommodate the bottom- 

 bars of frames is nailed in the bottom 

 of the cage, about the middle. 



The frames are put in place, a piece 

 of wood Yi,^%. inch is laid across the 

 frames at each end and lightly nailed. 

 This ■)!( inch piece comes flush with the 

 end-piece of the cage, so the cover 

 holds it firmly in place, and it in turn 

 holds the frames in place, preventing 

 them from bouncing up and down. 

 Three light nails, such as are used in 

 nailing up frames, are driven through 

 each end of the cover into the end- 

 piece of the cage. Side pieces come 

 up flush with the top of the cover and 

 are nailed to it with about three or four 

 nails on each side. .\ light rope han- 

 dle is attached by nailing and stapling 

 each end of the rope to each end of the 

 cage. One rope is sufficient for a 

 crate of five or six nuclei. A request, 

 " Keep out of sun," and " Pile nothing 

 on this hive," is stenciled on the top of 

 one cage in each crate. 



I think the kind of cage used is not 

 very important, just so it provides ven- 

 tilation for the bees, holds the frames 

 in place, prevents the escape of the 

 bees and is light, so as to avoid exces- 

 sive transportation charges. 



The important thing is what goes 

 into the cage to form the nucleus. I 

 take it that my customer wants a start 

 of bees, and I put in enough bees, 

 brood, etc., to start quite a prosperous 

 little colony from the start. If it is 

 only a 1-frame nucleus, I select a comb 

 fully half filled with sealed brood, some 

 empty cells, and enough honey to last 

 the nucleus to its destination and some 

 over to help in starting brood after 

 arrival. The empty cells are filled with 

 water, and about as manv bees shaken 

 into the cage as are sufficient to well 

 cover both sides of a Langstroth frame 

 or comb. This, with the brood that 

 will soon hatch out, will make quite a 

 prosperous little colony. In a 2 frame 

 nucleus I place the equivalent of about 

 I'j frames of sealed brood. The other 

 two-thirds of a comb should be about 

 half honey and the other half filled 

 with water. In practice, the honey 

 will be at the tops of the frames and 

 empty cells at the bottom, which I fill 

 with water. 



A 3 frame nucleus may contain one 

 frame entirely filled with sealed brood 

 which I place in the center of the cage, 

 and the other two combs should have 

 about an inch or an inch and a half of 

 honey at the top, and the balance of 

 the combs about equally divided be- 

 tween sealed brood and empty cells to 

 be filled with water. Enough bees are 

 put into all nuclei to well cover both 

 sides of all combs. In actual practice 

 it is not always possible to find combs 

 with brood, honey and empty cells 

 arranged in any certain way, so these 

 statements must be understood to indi- 

 cate the amount of those things I use 

 rather than the arrangement of them. 

 The amount of honey may vary with 

 the distance the shipment is to go, 

 always bearing in mind that my custo- 

 mer may be an amateur, and not know 

 what to do with hungry bees, so 

 enough honey is included to carry the 

 bees to their destination and some over 

 to enable them to recover from the 

 shock of shipment and make their 

 start at brood-rearing. 



If a queen is to accompany a nucleus, 

 she is caged in a provisioned three- 

 hole cage, nine attendant bees caged 



with her and the cage pressed in unde- 

 a comb between the bottom of the comb 

 and the bottom-bar, wire cloth side 

 up, and the candy-hole against an end- 

 bar to prevent the bees from releasing 

 hi-r before the shipment is delivered. 

 Instructions are given to the customer 

 how to let the bees release her. If, 

 fro n any cause, the queen is released 

 en route, there is no real damage done, 

 but I like to have my customer able to 

 find the queen, which he may not be 

 able to do if she is out among the bees. 

 Care is taken to place the cage where 

 no water will jar out of the combs into 

 the queen-cage. 



As I have never had any failures I 

 may not be in a position to point out 

 the elements of success; but the points 



J E. Crane 



I regard as important are shipping 

 nothing but sealed brood, plenty of 

 bees, plenty of honey to carry to their 

 destination with some left over, and 

 plenty of ventilation, using only combs 

 that have had brood reared in them for 

 at least a year or two so as to make 

 them tough, and those combs built 

 from a good grade of foundation in 

 wired frames. 

 Mathis, Tex, 



The Flight of a Bee 



BY .T. E. CRANE. 



HAVE you ever stopped to inquire 

 how a bee flies ? Why does it 

 have four wings when a fly has 

 only two ? How can it fly backward 

 as well as forward ? Bees are governed 

 by physical laws and are controlled by 

 them as well as larger animal life. In 

 these days when man has learned to 

 navigate the air it is of special inter- 

 est to inquire how the bees are able to 



