12 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1919 



package of bees received from the South 

 and shipped North is David Eunning, Filion, 

 Mich., president of the National Beekeep- 

 ers' Association, and acknowledged to be 

 one of the authorities on cellar wintering. 

 If any man in all the United States could 

 winter bees, to compete with bees in two- 

 pound lots from the South, that man was 



Fig. 2. — This colony occupying the five-story hive is 

 one started from two pounds of beies received in 

 the latter part of last April, at David Running's 

 home yard. As will be seen by the general article, 

 these two-pound packages received by express from 

 the South went a little ahead of the colonies win- 

 tered in the Nortli. 



Mr. Running. The following statement of 

 what he did was read before the Michigan 

 State Beekeepers' convention last winter: 



Twenty 2-pound packages of bees delivea-ed at 

 my station on the 27th of April cost $3.25 per 

 package at shipping point. The express charge was 

 27 cents each, and they were fed about 5 pounds 

 of honey per package, which, at 17 cents per pound, 

 would equal 85 cents, making a total cost of |4.37 

 per package. 



These 20 packages produced a total of 1,675 

 pounds of honey, or an average of 83% pounds 

 per colony, which, at 17 cents per pound, would 

 bring $284.75, or $14.23% per colony, making a 

 net return of $9.86% per package. 



Ten packages delivered May 15, or 18 days later 

 than the other twenty, cost $3.00 at shipping point. 

 The express charge was 37 1-7 cents per package 

 each, and these were also fed about 5 pounds of 

 honey each, wlucli, at 17 cents per pound, would 

 equal 85 cents, making a total cost of $4.32 Vi per 

 package or colony. These 10 colonies produced a 

 total of 585 pounds of honey, or an average of 

 581/^ pounds per colony, which, at 17 cents per 

 pound, would bring $99.45, or $9.94 1/^ per colony, 

 making a net return of $5.72 per colony. 



You wall notice from these figures that the pack- 

 ages received first gave me. $4. 14% per package 

 more than those which were delivered 18 days 

 later, or an average of 23 cents per day for each 

 package for the 18 days. 



The Filion apiary in which these packages were 

 worked also contained 50 colonies which were 

 wintered in good condition, and which produced a 

 total of 2,875 pounds of honey, or an average of 

 571^ pounds per colony, which, at 17 cents, would 

 bring $488.75, or $9.77% per colony. Now taking 

 these 50 colonies to cost the same as the average 

 cost of the 30 packages would bring them at 

 $4.32 1-6 per colony, which, deducted from the 

 above $9.77%, would leave a net return of 

 $5.45 1-3, or $4.41 less than the average net re- 

 turns from the first 20 packages received, and 27 

 cents per colony less than that secured from the 

 last 10 packages. 



There are two things brought out by this 

 statement: 1. That the bees received from 

 the South on the last of April did relatively 

 much better than those received 18 days 

 later. 2. That the two-pound packages re- 

 ceived both on April 27 and May 15 yielded 

 in the one case 26 more pounds of honey 

 per colony, and in the other case one pound 

 more honey per colony than those that were 

 wintered over in the North. In this he ex- 

 ceeded my tentative statement at the On- 

 tario convention. 



Limitations of Pound Packages as a 

 Bee-Supply Source. 



It would hardly be fair to make this a 

 basis of comi^arison between all bees ship- 

 ped from the South the last of April and 

 those wintered outdoors or in the cellar; but 

 it goes to show that my ' ' wild ' ' statement 

 made at the Ontario convention was not so 

 wild after all. Remember I said I thought 

 it might be possible. I did not say then, 

 neither do I say now, that packages of bees 

 in two-pound lots will, on the average, yield 

 larger returns per colony than bees wintered 



Fig. 3. — ^This picture sliovvs a row of hives, the 

 colonies of which came from two-pound packages 

 received from the South, and which, according to 

 David Running, held their own against bees that 

 wintered in the cellar under the most favorable con- 

 ditions, 

 over. But suppose these two-pound packages 

 are a better investment than entire colonies 

 wintered in the North, yet there would not be 

 facilities enough in the South to take care 

 of the Northern beekeepers if all these 



