24 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



.lAX. 



we have much to learn about winter management, 

 and controverting the nature of the bee to our 

 wants. Last sprinp we would not have given a big 

 orange to liave any one insure success; but, "where 

 ignorance is bliss, it were follj- to be wise." 

 November 20, 18.«4. A. W. Osburn. 



JUST ALIVE, BUT DIED. 



SKNniNO QUEENS ALIVE TO NEW ZEALAND. 



@X page 797 of Gleanings for 1884, 1 told you 

 that, " Early this fall I started a queen for 

 New Zealand in the mails," but that it had 

 not been heard from since it arrived at San 

 Francisco, Cal. On the 11th of this month I 

 received the following letter: 



3ir. O. 3/. Don/i«/e.— The following will give you 

 an idea of how the queen and bees arrived, which 

 you mailed me Aug. 3oth. Queen and bees came to 

 hand on the 2M of Sept., at 3 o'clock p. m. All the 

 workers were dead, and the queen gave the last 

 kick when being taken out of the cage. I tried hard 

 to revive her, but to no purpose. The cage contain- 

 ed stores enough to la.st another week. All the 

 bees looked clean and bright, including the queen. 

 I think the cold was the trouble. If you are agree- 

 able, 1 will try ne.\t seasen one or two shipments, 

 but one or two months later. Thanks for trouble 

 you have taken. My bees are in good trim, and the 

 clover is beginning to open plentifully. Hoping 

 you have had a good season. I remain yours truly, 

 Normanby, N. Z., Nov. 8, 1884. G. W. EppinO. 

 By the above it will be seen that 1 onlj- succeeded 

 in getting a queen barely alive from Borodino, N.Y., 

 to New Zealand, but my friend seems to think that 

 it was the cold there which caused them to die. 

 Quite probable he is correct regarding the queen, 

 but I think that the worker-bees could not have 

 lived to reach there alive, even had the weather 

 been ever so favoi-able, for this reason : Bees young- 

 er than .") or 6 days old ai-e wholly unsuitable for 

 sending in the mail; for bees younger than this do 

 not fly from the hive under ordinary circumstances 

 to mepty the intestines of the pollen excrement they 

 contain from the food they consumed while in the 

 larval state; hence if such bees are shipped they 

 will generally have the bee-diarrhcea, and faul 

 themselves and the cage, causing the whole to die 

 within a short time. Thus six days of the bees' life 

 is passed away before it starts on the .iourney. As 

 the average life of the worker bee in the working 

 season is not over 40 days (none living, under the 

 most favorable conditions, to exceed 4.5 days, as I 

 have several times pi-oven), it will be seen there can 

 be little prospect of a worker, caged at 6 days old, 

 living more than 34 days more. These bees which 

 we sent to friend Epping were caged at 11 o'clock 

 A. .M., on the 10th day of Aug.; and as he says they 

 arrived there at 3 p. m. Sept. 23, It will be seen they 

 were caged 35 days and 4 hours, or one day and 4 

 hours longer than we could expect them to live had 

 they had their liberty, while life, of necessity, must 

 wear out faster during the uneasiness of conflne- 

 tneiit. As these bees were sent l)y registered mail, 

 I had a chance to know how long they were going 

 across the Inited States to San Francisco, Cal., 

 which proved to be in this case nine days. Now, 

 if I lived in California I believe I could mail worker- 

 bees successfully to New Zealand, as that ii days 

 would reduce the 35 days down to m, which time 

 could be endured by bees, even in confinement. 



Perhaps some would like to know how I prepared 

 these bees for shipment, so that they can try ship- 

 ping long distances. I am a firm believer that the 



day is coming when all queens will be sent by mail 

 where the .iourney does not require more than 26 to 

 2S days to accomplish it; and the more trials there 

 are the sooner will the result be accomplished. 

 The cage and candy were made the same as was de- 

 scribed by me on page .599, Gleanings for 1863, 

 where I wrote relative to the queen I sent to Scot- 

 land. In addition to this I took a piece of clean old 

 tough comb and fitted it securely in the middle of 

 the two large holes, so fastening it that the bees 

 could go over the top of it and have free access to 

 both sides, where the cells were. In fact, the bees 

 had a hive with one comb in the center, and plenty 

 of food in the ends. My object in putting the piece 

 of comb in was, so they could carry this honey from 

 the " Good' candy " and store it in the comb if they 

 wished to, thus keeping them more contented, and 

 make it seem more like home to them. I did not 

 know that they would do this for certain until the 

 next morning, when I was convinced they did by 

 finding live times the pulverized sugar under the 

 cage I had seen before under any cage left over 

 night, and also by seeing liquid glistening in one or 

 two of the cells which I could .just peer into through 

 the wire cloth. J am sorry friend E. did not tell me 

 whether or not there was any liquid honey in the 

 comb when it arrived. Those last kicks of the 

 queen in New Zealand give me faith, and I shall 

 make further trial next Sept. and Oct., in sending 

 one the 2,5th of Sept. and one Oct. 15, should Provi- 

 dence spare my life, and friend E. still advises me 

 to do so. 



On page 830, Dec. No., I find these words: "It 

 just now occurs to me that friend Doolittle's re- 

 marks about the sugar in the (iOo<l candy being of 

 no value, will need a little qualifying when we talk 

 about wintering bees on candy from sugar and 

 nothing else." Now, friend Boot, it almost seems 

 as if you did not really want to understand, some- 

 times. Won't you please read my article on page 

 797 again, and see if it is not already qualified re- 

 garding wintering? In fact, the sugar is sometimes 

 used by the bees in very cloudy, misty weather in 

 the summer, in the cages, but never in dry summer 

 weather; and when given to full colonies, the sugar 

 is used in the summer only after it is moistened by 

 the dew at the entrance, as friend Fradenburg tells 

 us on page 27, 1884; at least, this is my experience. 



G. M. DOOLITTLK. 



Borodino. N. V., Dec. 1,5. 18?<4. 



I confess, friend 1)., that 1 had not gone 

 over your article on page 797 when I wrote 

 what" I did, and I did not remember tliat you 

 used the expression " warm weatlier.'"" If 

 you mean by not wanting to understand, 

 that I am not willing to admit that bees can 

 not eat dry candy in warm weather. I think 

 I shall have to plead guilty. "When I first 

 recommended giving bees frames of candy 

 instead of liquid food, our experiments wer'e 

 all made during severe drouglits in August 

 and September, and I built up nuclei, and 

 fed them for weeks on nothing but hard can- 

 dy poured into wired frames. On one occa- 

 sion our apiarist left a wheelbarrow full of 

 hives containing such frames of candy. It 

 was in the middle of the day, and a very 

 dry, hot day too ; but in the course of aii 

 hoiu' or two we had about as lively a time 

 with robbing as you often see. In the back 

 numbers of Gleanings 1 gave some experi- 

 ments with dry coffee sugar. When sugai- 



