GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1919 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



and the hive they used, it is no wonder 

 they think it unprofitable. Such dirty, un- 

 kempt hives, homemade hives, with any kind 

 of top, and slats for a foundation! I really 

 believe the bees died or abandoned these, 

 simply from discouragement. Why shouldn 't 

 they? H. E. Payne. 



Springfield, O. 



THE TWO-POUND PACKAGE 



The Reason for and the Result of Long-distance 

 Purchases of Bees 



Having had a few years' experience in 

 caring for bees, during which time I read 

 considerable of the best literature on the 

 subject, and being desirous of increasing the 

 size of my apiary and its output and get- 

 ting some valuable experience and first- 

 hand information along a comparatively 

 new line, I decided early in 1918 to order 

 some bees from the South in combless pack- 

 ages. As the two-pound package was the 

 smallest that seemed at all advisable, I de- 

 cided to conduct my experiments with it. 



The next question was when to have them 

 shipped, and I studied my memorandum 

 for 1917, which said that on Mar. 20 bees 

 were working industriously on soft-maple 

 buds along the river bottoms. By Apr. 15 

 they were busy on the cottonwood and a 

 week later on the ash and box elder. Very 

 soon after this apple, plum, and other fruits 

 began to furnish pollen and nectar, so I de- 

 cided to place my order for just as early 

 shipment as the breeder could get them out, 

 which promised to be near Apr. 15. I plac- 

 ed two small orders with Alabama men for 

 shipment on Apr. 15 and one order with a 

 Texas man, who promised to start the ship- 

 ment about Apr. 20. One shipment of four 

 two-pound packages with untested queens 

 arrived from Alabama Apr. 22 and the bees 

 were hived in 8-frame dovetailed hives, with 

 six empty combs and two combs partly filled 

 with honey. The cages were sprinkled with 

 sugar syrup, opened, and placed in an empty 

 super on top of the frames arranged for the 

 bees to occupy. Some of the cages were 

 soon emptied as the bees went down to the 

 combs, while others had to be shaken or the 

 qu'?en found and put below with a cluster 

 of bees, after which I shook out the re- 

 maining bees into the super and put on the 

 cover. 



Two of these four, colonies were run for 

 comb honey and two for extracted. One 

 colony gave me 151 finished sections, which 

 (figured at 25 cents a section — the price for 

 which most of my honey was sold) were 

 worth $37.75. Deducting the cost (which 

 was $4.2"% per package, inclvuling express) 

 the profit on this colony in seven months 

 was$33.52i^,and there was left in the brood- 

 chamber enough honey to winter them. This 



must have been an excellent queen, for the 

 next best record in the apiary was 130 fin- 

 ished sections, made by a colony wintered 

 over. The second-package colony run for 

 comb honey yielded 58 sections, which was 

 considerably below the average for the api- 

 ary. However, the average for the two 

 colonies, 104 V^ pounds, was above the aver- 

 age for the apiary. 



My second order to an Alabama man for 

 six jjackages was never filled, but after some 

 correspondence the advertiser was prevailed 

 upon to return the purchase price, which he 

 did about midsummei'. Had this man known 

 that by accepting my order and holding my 

 money, he was depriving nie of an oppor- 

 tunity to place this money where I could 

 have made it earn a clear hundred dollars 

 in seven months, perhaps he would not have 

 booked 0}'ders far beyond his capacity to 

 fill. 



But the man from Texas was all right. 

 On Apr. 27 his shij^ment of 20 packages ar- 

 rived and was hived as the others were. In 

 just 10 days, on May 7, some of these queens 

 had sealed brood in two frames — pretty 

 good evidence that they got to work as soon 

 as they stiuck the combs. One of these 

 colonies was run for comb honey and yield- 

 ed 87 finished sections worth $21.75, from 

 which, after deducting the purchase price 

 which was $3,431/2, we have a net profit of 

 $18.31%, and stores for winter. I started 

 two of those Texas colonies as comb-honey 

 colonies, but one of them swarmed when the 

 first sujier was about half-full and I put 

 them back and gave them an extracting 

 super. 



No per-colony record was kept of those 

 run for extracted honey; but the package 

 bees did about as well as the other bees. I 

 am sure that some of them surpassed some 

 of the home-wintered colonies. Of the 24 

 packages one queen was superseded, and two 

 of the others proved such jioor queens that 

 I replaced them with cells from good queens. 



On the whole, I was well satisfied with 

 both shipments. They came thru in good 

 shape, were easily transferred from cage 

 to hive, and were money-makers. I would 

 like to get such packages by Apr. 1 if I 

 could, but Apr. 15 is about as early as the 

 Southern men will ship. If one has empty 

 combs to hive them on and one or two 

 combs containing four or five pounds of 

 honey, the bees, at that season and in this 

 locality, will get plenty of pollen for brood- 

 rearing. E. E. Banta. 



Oquawka, 111. 



[There is little question that these long- 

 distance purchases may be made to pay well. 

 From this article we infer that the brood- 

 chambers were not contracted to the size of 

 the cluster and that no brood was given the 

 bees on their arrival. Had this been done, 

 wouldn't the crop have been larger? — Ed.] 



