210 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



side. Old, tough combs are fastened in the 

 sections with thorns, as spoken of in trans- 

 ferring. Our customer, when he gets his 

 package, can see the queen without any 

 trouble, for she must be on one side of the 

 comb or the other, and if she is a fine queen, 

 she will advertise your business all along 

 the route, for who does not like to take a 

 look at a nice queen bee. To introduce her, 

 simply spread the combs, and place the 

 cage (supported by a similar section under 

 it, or something of a like nature), right in 

 the centre of the brood nest, where all the 

 bees in the colony can make her acquaint- 

 ance while she promenades on her own 

 comb, where they can not get hold of her 

 legs and wings, and pull them off, as they 

 often do. 



To get your cages filled with combs and 

 honey, just have a hive filled with frames 

 of sections containing fdn. clear to the bot- 

 toms of each. To have the new combs 

 strong, so they can not break out in ship- 

 ping, run wires across, or use the new fdn. 

 made on paper. The sections, for conve- 

 nience, may have both tops and bottoms 

 closed, and the bees may have access, by 

 separating the broad frames a trifle. These 

 combs being built in the brood chamber, 

 will probably be the thickness of usual 

 worker comb, and, if the queen should lay 

 in them, all the better. I do not know but 

 we might have queen cells built in them, 

 and use them for queen cell nurseries. The 

 cell and all can be changed from hive to 

 hive, without any cutting of combs, and 

 when we send off a queen in one, our cus- 

 tomer can remove the wire cloth, and slip it 

 into some of his frames, so we shall have no 

 useless queen cages lying scattered about 

 the apiary, but all will be utilized. I do not 

 know but we had a couple of bushels of sec- 

 ond hand queen cages lying about last 

 year. If any of the sections should be filled 

 with nice white honey, they can be used for 

 the table. After a section has been a long 

 time in the brood chamber, it may not be a 

 neat looking package to ship a queen in, but 

 we can fix this very quickly. Have a neat 

 long label of some nice paper, and, after 

 your queen is in, wire cloth put on, etc., 

 just paste this label right around the sec- 

 tion. A blank place will, of course, be left 

 to put on the address nicely. I will have 

 our engraver show you one of these nice 

 section box queen cages ready for shipment. 



SECTION BOX (^UEEN CAGE READY FOR 

 SHIPMENT. 



Here is a friend that wants bees at a dol- 

 lar a pound. 



T will take 10 quarts or 10 lbs. of bees, as per your 

 schedule, if delivered before the 15th of June, next. 

 The bees must be packed according to your sched- 

 ule in May Gleanings, express charges paid, and 

 safe delivery guaranteed to Brighton (express of- 

 fice). A young Italian queen, that has commenced 

 to lay, may accompany each lb., if you choose, and 

 I will pay $1.00 each, for the queens. 



Brighton, Mich., May 12, '79. C. Thomson. 



May nth. — Several more packages of bees 

 have been received ; most of them in excel- 

 lent condition. One of the shippers scuds 

 us two packages, with the following note : 



I will sell 1000 lbs. of bees at one dollar per lb. 

 New Madrid, Mo., May 16, '79. T. C. Marsh. 



The bees were put in a square box, with 

 wire cloth on two sides. They were provis- 

 ioned with sugar in a tin box, with a bottle 

 of water over it. The mouth of the bottle 

 was submerged in a little tin cup, like the 

 cover to a tea- canister. Although both 

 boxes were put up exactly alike, one box full 

 had eaten almost none of the sugar, and had 

 all starved but f of a lb., while the other 

 was in a most beautiful condition, hav- 

 ing drank all of their bottle of water, and 

 eaten perhaps a lb. or more of sugar. They 

 had barely a table-spoonful left. The live 

 bees weighed just 9 lbs. Express charges 

 were SI. 80. If friend Marsh can make them 

 all do as well as this lot, it will be a success. 

 As there were 3 queens in the lot, 2 of 

 them caged, I infer he took 3 swarms to get 

 his 9 lbs. 



These were black bees, which is all right, 

 as I made no distinction in my offer. AVnile 

 the Italians are busy gathering honey, these 

 black scamps are trying to rob every hive in 

 the apiary. I wonder if some of the friends 

 did not pick out their most quarrelsome bees 

 to send me, just to get rid of them ? If they 

 did, it is all right, but after this month, I 

 think I shall have to say 50c. per lb. for black 

 bees, and 75c. for Italians. If you can send 

 me the bees on combs in metal cornered L. 

 frames, I will pay additional for all the 

 combs and brood are worth. 



May 2ith. — There ! that is just as I expect- 

 ed ! Friend Hayhurst has beaten us all, and 

 has capped the climax to my invention of 

 sending bees without hives or combs. Hear 

 him. 



I hand you to-day, per express, charges paid, a one 

 dollar queen and %fl>. of bees, for the purpose of 

 testing your new basket. If received in good order, 

 please accept, &c. I enclose an advertisement to 

 take the place of the other one in case the basket of 

 bees reaches you in good condition. 



I am inclined to think this method of shipping 

 bees is going to solve the problem. I have had so 

 much trouble in shipping nuclei, that I had discon- 

 tinued that part of the business. I put 1V4 oz. of 

 water, and 3£lb. of candy in the basket, and would 

 be glad to know if this was ample for the trip. 



E. M. Hayhurst. 



Kansas City, Mo., May 19, 1879. 



The package came by express, without the 

 loss of a single bee. The i lb. of beautiful 

 young Italians almost filled the dish cover, 

 which was precisely like the one illustrated 

 last month. The bottle had a notch cut in 

 the cork, through which passed a string of 



