260 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Fig. 6. — Five-pound size. 



funnel is remov'ed. If bees are gathering 

 honey freely we add 25 per cent to their 

 weight so as to give full measure. After 

 the bees are all shaken into the cage, the 

 last operation is to pick the queen off the 

 comb that has been set aside, and gently 

 drop her among her subjects in the cage. 

 But it very often happens in the early part 

 of the season that it is better to till an 

 order from four or five different hives. To 

 take two, three, or even only one pound of 

 bees from a colony in the spring is a se- 

 vere drain on them. Sometimes we fill a 

 package from three or four different hives. 

 That, of course, means we will have in the 

 cage as many different lots of bees. 



How about the queen? In nine cases out 

 of ten any queen from any hive may be 

 dropped into such a heterogeneous mass of 

 bees, and be accepted without any further 

 trouble; but because of that one failure 

 out of ten we now make it a rule to use a 

 virgin-introducing cage with a plug of can- 

 dy in it, and into this we put the queen. 

 The introducing-cage is secured to the 

 wooden cap that covers the filling hole. In 

 four or five hours the bees will be ready to 

 accept their queen — that is to say, they cat 

 out the candy and release her. 



So far we have been able to ship bees durr 

 ing the hottest weather in summer, provid- 

 ing we use water-bottles properly arranged 



so that they will feed water during the en- 

 lire trip. We have already published re- 

 ports of how we have shipped bees success- 

 fully to Oregon, Florida, Maine, and many 

 other points, with the loss of scarcely a 

 bee.* But it is exceedingly important that 

 the candy be made just right. A candy 

 that is too soft will run down and daub 

 the bees. A candy that is too hard the bees 

 can not eat. It must be just right. We 

 make up a batch of candy about a month 

 before we expect to use it. We let it stand 

 in a warm room; and if it begins to spread 

 in the pan or on the molding-board, after 

 standing two weeks in warm weather, more 

 powdered sugar is kneaded in. If, after a 

 week or ten days, it seems to be soft and 

 moist so that it can be indented by a pres- 

 sure of the finger, and yet will hold its 

 position without " running " on the mold- 

 ing-board, it is then fit to use. A word 

 about the sugar. Be sure to get powdered 

 sugar without starch in it. 



We anticipate that the pound packages 

 of bees we illustrate, or those embodying 

 tliese principles, will be a nice business for 



* We shipped one three-pound package of bees to 

 Guelph, Canada, last winter, when the temperature 

 was nearly down to zero. About one-third were 

 dead on arrival. The expressman probably felt Sor- 

 ry for them, and set them against a steam-radiator. 

 We don't believe the cold killed the one-third that 

 were dead. 



