224 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



from the business will not be success- 

 ful. M. C, Berry, of Hayneville, Ala., 

 began operations with 900 colonies this 

 season, and had about reached the limit 

 of his capacity to fill orders by the time 

 he was ready to send out the first ship- 

 ments. At that, new orders were com- 

 ing in every mail. The beekeeper who 

 undertakes the package business with 

 only a limited supply of bees to draw 

 from is quite likely to be disappointed 

 with results, and many will fail. The 

 pound package shipper should first be 

 a queen-breeder, since he can hardly 

 depend upon buying queensin sufficient 

 numbers to fill' orders. Most orders 

 are for bees with queens. So many 

 packages shipped without queens are 

 lost in transit, that some shippers are 

 considering accepting such orders at 

 the buyers risk only. Myattention was 

 called to the difference in behavior of 

 the bees in packages with queens and 

 those without them. The queenless 

 bees were restless and kept up a con- 

 tinual buzzing which indicated that 

 they would hardly arrive at their desti- 

 nation in good condition. The bees 

 with queens clustered quietly and 

 apparently were little disturbed by their 

 confinement. 



On my visit to Canada last June, I 

 found some of the extensive producers 

 considering the question of extracting 

 all their honey in the fall and buying 

 bees from the South the following 

 spring, instead of wintering the large 

 number of bees which is necessary for 

 their extensive operations. They fig- 

 ured that it requires at least $4 00 worth 

 of honey to carry each colony through. 

 For the same cost, they buy a 3 pound 

 package with queen in the spring and 

 eliminate the winter losses. A few 

 were experimenting in a small way 

 with this idea in mind, but I did not 

 find any one who had definitely decided 

 that it would pay. 



This plan is not at present possible 

 on any general scale because of the 

 fact that no sufficient source of supply 

 is available. It is now a demonstrated 

 fact that it is as cheap to buy bees in 

 packages and place them on combs in 

 spring, as to make late increase to win- 

 ter over. The beekeeper who plans to 



make heavy increase will find it advis- 

 able to get as many combs drawn as 

 possible during his honey harvest for 

 the purpose of having them ready, and 

 then buy the bees the following spring. 

 The shippers guarantee the safe deliv- 

 ery of the packages, so that there is 

 little risk to the buyer. 



Even in Iowa I figure that it costs 

 me as much in stores to winter my 

 bees, as package bees would cost, with- 

 out the risk of winter losses. While I 

 would hesitate to destroy colonies 

 already on hand rather than provide 

 the necessary honey for wintering, I 

 can see no particular advantage in 

 making my own increase in quantity, 

 especially in a good season. It is only 

 fair to state, however, that this conclu- 

 sion has been reached from the experi- 

 ences of men in the North who have 

 bought bees in packages rather than 

 from actual personal trial. 



The shippers visited were J. E. Mar- 

 chant Bee & Honey Company of Colum- 

 bus, Ga., A. B. Marchant, of Marchant 

 Bros., of Union Springs, Ala., W. D. 

 Ac'iord, of Fitzpatrick, Ala., M. C. 

 Berry, of Hayneville, Ala , and J. D. 

 Smith, of the Penn Company of Penn, 

 Miss. It was r lining most of the time 

 of my visit at Columbus, and the pic- 

 tures taken there were disappointing. 

 Photographs of the men mentioned are 

 shown herewith. All the firms above 

 named are well equipped for business, 

 although all alike were somewhat nerv- 

 ous about the rainy backward spring, 

 and felt anxious about being able to 

 make deliveries as early as purchasers 

 desired. If the weather has been as 

 unfavorable elsewhere as it has in this 

 part of Iowa since my return, the pur- 

 chasers will suffer no particular incon- 

 venience because of a little delay. 



Some shippers have their colonies 



M. C. BERRY AND COLORED ASSISTANT FILLING POUND PACKAGES AT 



AN OUTYARD 



p. 



■««. 



K. 



i 



I' 



Vlt. 



fllLVJl 



THE FIRST SHIPMENT OF THE SEASON FROM HAYNEVILLE, ALA, 



from which orders are to be filled 

 about three stories high. Queen ex- 

 cluders are over the brood-chambers, 

 and no bees are taken from below the 

 excluder. The packages are filled in 

 the middle of the day when the old 

 bees are in the field, so mostly young 

 bees go into the packages. This in- 

 sures the safe arrival of the package 

 under favorable conditions, and also 

 that there will be no dwindling before 

 there is time to rear brood. At the 

 same time it insures tliat no colony 

 will be unduly reduced, so that when 

 the package season is over, all colonies 

 will be strong enough to store some 

 honey from the late flows. 



The great difficulty with beekeeping 

 in the South is the fact that because of 

 the mild climate brood-rearing contin- 

 ues throughout most of the year. Thus, 

 enormous stores are consumed and 

 there is much difficulty in the control 

 of swarming in some localities. Where 

 the main flow is late in the season, it is 

 thus easily possible to control early 

 swarming by removing the surplus bees 

 to fill packages, and at the same time 

 keep the colonies strong enough for 



