1885 



GLEA^^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



nary cellar. If you are in a locality where a 

 cave can be cut in a tolerably soft rock, you 

 are, of course, all right ; and in some cases I 

 presume natural caves would answer an ex- 

 cellent purpose. 



BEES BY THE POUND,[[^FEOM LOUIS- 

 IANA TO NEW YORK. 



HOW IT TLHNED OUT. 



N the fall of 1884 I had a genuine Florida fever. 

 The fever was induced by a young- gentleman 

 who was spending- a few months' vacation at a 

 summer i-esort a few miles from me, and who 

 spends a greater portion of the year in Florida 

 attending his orange-groves. This gentleman be- 

 came interested in my apiary, and caught the bee 

 fever, and offered me a very good salary to spend a 

 few months with him, and set him up in the bee- 

 business by establishing an apiary in his Florida 

 home; but circumstances compelled me to stay in 

 my Northern home. It^was my plan, had I been at 

 liberty to accept his offer, to lake some of my best 

 Italian bees south and rear queens and bees, and 

 ship north by the pound early in the spring-. 



Having an apiary of over .50 swarms in an adjoin- 

 ing town, and losing quite a number of colonies 

 during the winter, I thought it a good chance to 

 try my Florida scheme. lUit instead of myself sit- 

 ting under the orange-trees and receiving money 

 from the north for bees, the experiment was against 

 myself. Another man under the orange-trees must 

 ship me the bees to stock up my apiary. 



In March I commenced correspondence with par- 

 tics in Florida; but our orauge-g-rove bee-men did 

 not have bees to sell by the i)Ound, so I turned my 

 aHections and attentions to the man on the sugar 

 l)laiilations of Louisiana, and found a man who 

 was willing to send bees by the pound. My trade 

 was for 100 lbs. of bees and a number of (jueens, to 

 be delivered the tirst week in May; but owing to 

 cold weather in the South 1 did not receive my first 

 shipment until the 35th of May; :J0 lbs. were sent in 

 this lot, put up in 2-lb. packages, and upon arrival I 

 found fully one-half of the bees dead. In two 

 cages every bee was dead; in several others, from 

 one-half to two-thirds were dead, and only in two or 

 three cages were the bees in good condition. In 

 one cage there were less than a dozen dead bees. 



This first shipment had quite an elTect upon my 

 Florida fever. It did not run so high. I wrote my 

 shipper the condition of the bees upon arrival. The 

 cages were S'lXSi-i, and i;i'2 inches in length. The 

 candy was placed in two sections. Hat in the bottom 

 of the cages. Just as soon as a bee died it fell into 

 the candy and stuck there; and as soon as enough 

 died to cover the candj% the rest had to "root, hog, 

 or die;" and as they didn't know how to " root," 

 they died. 



The ne.xt lot of 30 lbs. was put up in .") 111. lols. in 

 l-frame-nuclei boxes, with combs for tlieiu to clus- 

 ter and feel at home upon. I was assured that bees 

 so shipped had been put through long- distances, 

 and had arrived in fine condition. My Florida fever 

 began to rage again, and orange-groves aiijicared 

 in my night visions. 



On the 9th of June this lot arrived, and my Florida 

 fever received such a shock that it has not returned 

 f!ince. The bees wei-e in a worse condition than the 

 'prst lot, and showed signg nf very rough handling-. 



The candy was in the bottom, like the first lot; and 

 in the cages where the bees were all dead, but a 

 small portion had been eaten; and though the 

 combs were wired L. frames, they were melted 

 down; and comb, bees, and candy, wei-e in a fllthj', 

 sticky mass in the bottom. Honey was oozing out 

 from all sides of the cage. Smothering was very 

 evidently the cause of death, and there were but a 

 few pounds of live bees left in the whole lot. The 

 queens to go with these pounds were sent by mail, 

 and nearly all of these arrived in good condition. 



The nuclei formed fi-om these weary, dismayed, 

 forlorn surviving travelers brightened up in a few 

 days, and those that arri\ed upon the 25th of May 

 were put to their level best; and when our bounti- 

 ful harvest from basswood came they stored a pay- 

 ing amount of honey; and it is safe to say, had my 

 100 lbs. come to hand by the middle of May in the 

 two-pound lots agreed upon, and in good condition, 

 they would have given me fully 5000 lbs. of bass- 

 wood honey. Of course, I could not ask the shipper 

 to pay for this prospective honej\ He sent me sev- 

 eral extra queens, and promises to pay all express 

 charges on all that are dead upon any lots I may 

 order in the future. Our trade was amicably set- 

 tled, but I do not feel like hearing the subject of 

 experiments, especially unsuccessful ones. My 

 actual damages would read something like this: 

 Loss of ,5000 lbs. of honey (f> 8e. - - - ? 400 

 Going to K. K. station 6 miles, several journeys, 20 

 Distress of mind at not finding bees there, - 1000 

 Destruction of my Florida scheme, - - - .5000 



Total, - f(J430 

 Now, the most of |)eople would go nearly crazy 

 over such a loss as this; but I have learned to take 

 things cool, and to be happy under all circum- 

 stances. I have H good yield of honey, and will 

 make all I can out of it. J. H. M.vhtin. 



Later.— y\y Florida friend of last season is hero 

 ag-ain. I have just had a pleasant visit with him. 

 Ho started with 10 swarms, increased to 38, and ob- 

 tained 300 lbs. of extracted honey; sold for 25 cents 

 I)er lb. IJy transferring out of season he got his 

 bees to robbing, got stung, and got everybody else 

 stung aroung him. My Florida fever begins to af- 

 fect me just a little— somewhat intermittent. 

 Hartford, N. V., Sept. 2.5, 18«5. J. H. M. 



Right glad we are to hear the report, even 

 if it /,s a failure, friend M. Now, had yon 

 consiiUed your A B C book you would have 

 noticed that I cuiphatically insist that bees 

 shall have ventilation tlirough both top and 

 b()ttt)in of the i)a('kage, where they are to be 

 sent long disti.iices. I have experimented 

 in tins matter to my heart's content, and I 

 thouglit 1 made it so plain in the A B (" 

 book that 110 one. after reading my direc- 

 tions for moving bees, would have made 

 such a mistake. I can take a powerful colo- 

 ny in the hottest day in July, and by cover- 

 ing both top and bottom of tlie hive with 

 wire cloth, so thai the bees can send a stream 

 of air rigid tiuough. they can be shipped 

 safely almo^it anywlicre. The perspiration 

 and hot air rise rigid tlirough the upper wire 

 cloth, ]>roviding a stream of cold air can 

 come right in from the bottom. Long ago 

 we also gave warning that the food, whether 

 candy, honey, or whatever it may be, should 

 by no means be on the bottom, for dead 

 bees to fall into ; besides, the bottom is all 

 wanted for ventilation, as I just told you. X 



