1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



209 



Please report any defect, and any improvement 

 that may be made, in the box I ship you the bees in. 



P. L. VlALLON. 



Bayou Goula, La., May 8, 1879. 



I took the poor bees from the train my- 

 self, and they were nearly all dead. The 

 comb put in his very neat shipping- box, was 

 entirely empty, the "candy was partially eat- 

 en out, and was covered so densely with 

 dead bees, that the survivors could not get 

 at it, and the water bottle, that most im- 

 portant part, contained, I should think, all 

 the water he put in from the start. A wick 

 had been put through a hole in the cork, 

 which had expanded so as to close the hole. 

 Had the comb contained honey enough, I 

 presume we should have had no trouble. 

 Perhaps we would better rely on honey, until 

 we can invent some surer way of supplying 

 water. The notch in the cork seems to an- 

 swer best for a few bees, but then there is 

 danger if it is either a little too large or too 

 small. 



CAGES FOR SENDING OUT QUEENS. 



One of our Medina bee-keepers, after de- 

 ciding that, since queens must be sent by 

 express, we might just as well give them a 

 little more room and more bees, ordered 

 some cages or, perhaps, nucleus hives made. 

 The dimensions are 3x4x5, and the frame 

 3|, by 4 inches. The first three that were 

 sent out, elicited the following postal cards. 



Received the queen on Saturday in very fine con- 

 dition, not a bee dead. You certainly deserve credit 

 for putting- them up so nicely, and they should go a 

 long distance safely. J. Mattoon. 



Atwater, Ohio, May 12, 1879. 



The queen arrived safely, and appai-ently all right, 

 this morning. Capped stores in about 4-5 of one 

 side of comb, yet remaining. No dead bees. 



D. C. Spencer. 



P. S.— Apr. 29. Introduced all right. Charges 50c. 

 Too much. 



Augusta, Wis., Apr. 28, '79. D. C. S. 



The queen which you sent me, arrived in due time, 

 and in good condition. I believe there was not a 

 single dead bee in the cage. A. C. Peavey. 



Epsworth, Iowa, May 5, 1879. 

 Below is a drawing of the little hive and 

 the remarks of^the originator in regard to it. 



ANOTHER SHIPPING CAGE FOR QUEENS. 



This cage, so far as reported, has carried without 

 loss of even a single bee. To prepare for shipping, 

 the comb on which the queen is found may be re- 

 moved from the hive, the little cage frame placed 

 crosswise in the space left, and the frames covered 

 with the cushion or mat for a short time. All the 

 bees needed to accompanv the queen will gather on 

 the little frame without the trouble of picking them 



from other combs. 



The frame can be carefully placed in the cage, the 

 queen dropped in, and they are all ready for ever so 

 long a journey. 



The cage would of course require too much post- 

 age (at the present price of queens) to be used for 

 mailing, but I do not feel quite certain that (were 

 it not for bee-keepers who live far from express of- 

 fices) government did not do a good rather than bad 

 thing, when it prohibited the sending of queens by 

 mail, though from partially mistaken reasons. 



After seeing the number of queens and bees that 

 came through smothered and starved, it almost 

 seemed to me that some one ought to interfere, to 

 prevent cruelty to insects, as well as cruelty to ani- 

 mals. After being kept in a state of ceaseless activ- 

 ity for so long a time in the little crowded mailing- 

 cage, is it any wonder they die ? With the larger 

 cage, we can give them plenty of sealed honey, and 

 still have empty cells left in which the little fellows 

 may "sit down and rest," if so disposed. We usually 

 find most of the inhabitants of the hive stirring, 

 particularly if we stir them a little roughly, but did 

 you never notice, on taking out a frame, how nicely 

 some of them seem folded away in their cells, 

 quiet enough to be asleep ? 



Every bee keeper who uses sections has, in the 

 fall, more or less partially filled ones. These an- 

 swer nicely for the small shipping frame, and the 

 comb may be fastened securely by tying with fine 

 wire, as we would tie a package. 



The plan is the same used by Italian exporters of 

 queens. Miss M. Andrews. 



Medina, Ohio, May 15, 1879. 



Quite a number of the queens we send out, 

 in fact, it seems to me, by far too many, 

 have been reported stubborn about laying. 

 A few of the imported queens would not 

 lay at all, after shipment, although they laid 

 nicely in our own apiary. Well, a little hive 

 like this, would almost give them room to 

 lay eggs on the way, if they felt so disposed 

 The only objection, then, is the expense. 

 True, we can make the little hives for 10c 

 each, or $1.00 per dozen, like the other queen 

 cages, but how about the piece of comb con- 

 taining, perhaps, 2 oz. of honey, and the ad- 

 ditional number of bees to go with the 

 queen. A hundred bees are worth about 3 

 cents you know, and when one sells a queen 

 for a dollar, or less even, at wholesale, every 

 cent must be counted. Again, if one want- 

 ed to send me 20 or more queens in a pack- 

 age, as they often do, it makes an additional 

 charge, for so great a bulk. Some more 

 "walking around the stairway" had to be 

 done. One thing is certain, we can not af- 

 ford to run any risks of losing queens, for a 

 few cents extra in 1 tees, honey, or express 

 charges. I would rather do business and 

 not make a cent, than to have to keep up a 

 Growlery and Blasted Hopes correspondence 

 the year around. 



Cutting combs to get proper pieces to go 

 into these little frames is quite an expense, 

 and while thinking about this and other 

 points, it occurred to me to use a simple sec- 

 tion box, and have the bees build the combs 

 right in them just as we want them. The 

 idea is already put in practice, and we are 

 now sending queens out in section boxes, 

 with a sheet of wire cloth tacked over each 



