1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



225 



J. E. Marchant, of Columbus, Ga, 



the flow when it comes. The combi- 

 nation of packages with honey produc- 

 tion insures a safe and satisfactory in- 

 come. 



The package business on a large 

 scale will hardly prove practical except 

 in the South, since most of the orders 

 are for deliveries in April and May. It 

 would be extremely difficult in the 

 northern States to induce bees to breed 

 up to a point where such orders could 

 be filled at a time when there was a 

 demand. The South then will continue 

 to be the source of bees in combless 

 packages. Because of the long breed- 

 ing season and the mild winters, this 

 branch of the business of beekeeping 

 can be expected to become increasingly 

 popular in southern States. 



The package business has not, as yet, 

 passed beyond the e.xperimental stage 

 in some respects. There is no stand- 



ard cage, each breeder having his own 

 ideas about cage construction. Some 

 shippers feed from the end of the cage 

 and some from the top. Top feeding 

 would seem to conform more nearly to 

 the habits of the bees in clustering be- 

 low their stores. As nearly as I have 

 been able to gather from the reports at 

 hand, there is a smaller percentage of 

 losses in transit where the bees are fed 

 from the top of the cage rather than 

 from the end. 



It is important that there be a suffi- 

 cient amount of candy, and that it 

 be of exactly the right consistency. 

 Candy that is too soft runs and 

 musses things up, while if the candy is 

 too hard the bees will die for lack of 

 food The novice should be very care- 

 ful to fully inform himself in regard to 

 making suitable candy before attempt- 

 ing to ship bees for any distance in' 

 packages. There have been numerous 

 losses from unsuitable candy. 



The shipper must exercise care in 

 crating the packages in such a way that 

 it is impossible for careless express 

 messengers to smother the bees by 

 piling other packages over them. The 

 illustration shows how four packages 

 are fastened together by means of 

 strips. Two or three inches of space 

 between the packages insures a liberal 

 supply of air. The other picture of 

 packages, is simply the first day's 

 business from the Berry apiaries piled 

 up ready to go to the express office. A 

 few days later all the shippers were 

 sending out packages in large numbers. 



The picture of Mr. Berry will give a 

 good idea of the way in which the 

 packages are filled. The empty cage is 

 placed on a small scale so that the 

 weight can be readily noted. The large 

 tin funnel slides the bees into the pack- 

 age the easiest way. The slip is so 

 easy that they never seem to know 

 what is happening until the job is done 

 and the hole closed. The feed for the 

 journey is placed in the cage before 

 the bees are put in. 



It is hardlywithin the scope of this 

 article to narrate the incidents of the 

 visits to the various apiaries, but we 

 take this opportunity to present to our 



w. d. achord and his assistants. h. c 

 Short and Felix Brown 



readers pictures of several of the more 

 extensive package shippers, taken right 

 in the bee yards. These mens' names 

 are all well known to our readers, be- 

 cause of their advertising. All are en- 

 larging their equipment to prepare for 

 increased business in the future for the 

 package business has come to stay. 

 New names will appear from time to 

 time, and men who are well known as 

 queen-breeders or honey producers, 

 can be expected to launch into the 

 package business also. Apparently the 

 business of beekeeping is yet in its in- 

 fancy, and we may expect to see greater 

 development in the next 2-5 years than 

 the old timers have seen in a life time. 

 Atlantic, Iowa. 



J. D. SMITH. MANAGER. AND S. E. MERRILL. QUEEN BREEDER OF THE 

 PENN CO.. PENN.IMISS. 



IN SPITE OF POOR CARE 



This spring I have had occasion to 

 e.xamine a lot of bees which have re- 

 ceived little attention for several years 

 past. In spite of the winter which re- 

 sulted in heavy losses, many colonies 

 in hives which were so rotten that they 

 would not bear lifting contain very 

 strong colonies. Ii is a little surpris- 

 ing that a colony will come through 

 such a winter in a hive with thebottom 

 rotted out and with cracks an inch or 

 more in diameter in the corners. Some 

 of the covers even were loose and had 

 cracks as wide as a hive-tool. When 

 bees under such conditions come 

 through the winter in as good condi- 

 tion as those which were carefully 

 packed in winter cases and given all 

 the coddling that a fussy beekeeper 

 knows how to bestow it makes one 

 think that we have not yet learned all 

 about wintering. Probably it is only 

 the vigorous colonies that survive at 

 all under such conditions. However, 

 we fail to see how the advocates of 

 sealed covers and no upward ventila- 

 tion can reconcile such cases with 

 their arguments. f. c. p, 



