Vol. LVIL— No. 7 



HAMILTON, ILL, JULY, 1917, 



MONTHLY, 1.00 A YEAR 



BEES IN COMBLESS PACKAGES 



Notes on the Pound Package Business as Seen by Frank C. Pellett 



on a Visit to the Southern Shippers 



THE readers of the American Bee 

 Journal have manifested so much 

 inter-'st in the possibilities of the 

 combless package that it seemed advis- 

 able to find out just what the shippers 

 are doing. Accordingly, when word 

 came from the office to pack my grip 

 and see what I could find of interest in 

 the South, I went prepared for several 

 weeks' stay and several thousand miles 

 of travel. Most of the combless pack- 

 ages are shipped from Georgia, Ala- 

 bama, Mississippi and Texas. Texas is 

 so far removed from the other States 

 mentioned that it did not seem advis- 

 able to include that State with the 

 others mentioned. 



The trip outlined included visits to 

 as many of the queen-breeders and 

 package men as it was possible to 

 reach in the month of time available. 

 From Chicago the trip was made South 

 by way of Cincinnati with stops in Ken- 

 tucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. 

 The return was made through Georgia, 

 Alabama, Mississippi and western Ten- 

 nessee. It is not the intention to give 

 a consecutive account of the trip, but 

 rather to answer the queries of our 



readers as far as possible concerning 

 the package business and other matters 

 relating to the South. A later article 

 will deal with the possibilities of com- 

 mercial honey production with notes 

 on the sources of honey in different 

 localities. 



The shipment of bees in combless 

 packages is about the latest develop- 

 ment of importance in commercial bee- 

 keeping. It is so new that extensive 

 beekeepers have hesitated to order bees 

 in quantity for fear of failure. Most of 

 the orders have been for from one to 

 half a dozen packages even from the 

 most experienced beekeepers. So suc- 

 cessful have these shipments been that 

 this year, for the first titne, large or- 

 ders are the rule and single orders 

 require from a dozen packages to more 

 than a hundred. The possibilities of 

 shipping bees in packages are just be- 

 ginning to be realized. 



All the package men visited were 

 being snowed under with orders before 

 the season of shipment arrived. I left 

 home early in March, and was, accord- 

 ingly, a little early for the purpose for 

 which 1 went, although all were pre- 



paring for the opening of the season at 

 the time of my visit. The indications 

 are that the package business will de- 

 velop very rapidly and that the demand 

 will exceed the supply for several years 

 to come. 



Much more capital is necessary to 

 handle a package business successfully 

 than is needed for a queen business or 

 a honey business. The season is com- 

 paratively short, and unless the shipper 

 has a large number of colonies to draw 



POUND PACKAGES AS THEY ARE CRATED FOR SHIPMENT. NO DANGER 

 OF SUFFOCATION FOR LACK OF VENTILATION 



A. B. Marchant. Union Springs. Ala. 



