892 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



tlu'ee or four days in order to watch thera; 

 and before we knew it some of the bees in 

 one of the cages began dying. Examination 

 showed tl)at neither package had a particle 

 of food. We immediately replenished the 

 pans with candy; bnt it was evident that 

 the bees of one of the packages had suffered 

 considerably. However, we sent them on 

 again to Washington, with instructions to 

 return again. This morning, Oct. 7, they 

 came back, and the one that had not suf- 

 fered from starvation had suffered a loss 

 of only about 150 bees out of a total num- 

 ber of 5000, or a loss of only 3 per cent, 

 after the live trips of 27 days from Fitz- 

 patrick, Ala., and then on to Washington 

 and back, of two round trips. 



The bees in this package are still sweet 

 and nice, and possibly would stand more 

 journeys; but 27 days from the time of 

 shipment is as long a time as any bees 

 would be en route in the United States by 

 three times over. It may be reasonably 



presumed that Mr. Achord can ship bees 

 anywhere in the United States and most 

 places in Canada. 



A closer examination sliows why the bees 

 in one of the packages used more food than 

 the other. Its bees had built a piece of 

 comb about as large as ihe palm of one's 

 hand. This occasioned an additional con- 

 sumption of stores, and incidentally goes 

 to show that bees can build comb without 

 any other food than pulverized cane sugar 

 and honey. Neither cage contained any 

 »vater. When proper provision is made for 

 ventilation, water seems to be unnecessary. 



The cut shows that Mr. Acho)'d has so 

 designed his package that it is impossible 

 to pile any other stuff on top of it, nor 

 anything near it to shut off ventilation. 

 This is quite important. As the express 

 charges are based on weight and not on 

 room taken in the express car, the project- 

 ing slicks add nothing to the cost of trans- 

 portation. 



THE CYCLONE SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 



BY DANIEL DANIELSON 



Many times I have seen pictures of 

 apiaries Avith straight rows of hives. Of 

 course it looks ideal. I used to have bees 

 in two long straight rows with a car-track 

 between them to cany the supplies out and 

 the honey in ; but I have 

 now given up the idea, 

 and have what I call the 

 Cyclone yards. If you 

 look at the hives from 

 a n elevated position 

 they look as if a cyclone 

 had dropped them in 

 every way. The en- 

 trances face all the 

 points of the compass. 



I now have only 

 about two per cent of 

 queenless colonies in the 

 spring, whereas before 

 I had as many as twelve 

 per cent. I run my 

 apiary mostly for ex- 

 tracted honey ; and by 

 working the queens for 

 all they can do, I raise 

 the brood above the 

 queen-excluders, there- 

 by preventing swarming, and get very 

 strong colonies to store honey. The queens 

 get a set of empty combs or foundation 

 below whenever the lower story is full of 



brood. By that plan the bees usually su- 

 persede their queens in August or Septem- 

 ber. 



With the hives in straight rows, and the 

 entrances all one way, a good number of 



With the hives in irregular rows, only two per cent of the queens are lost. 



the queens lose their way. Since I have the 

 cyclone style of beeyards, very few are 

 missing in the spring. In the winter I put 

 (he hives togetlier in a close row, and cover 



