GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



One of the first models of Malachowski's liive, " Elita." 



that of a railway postal clerk. I have given 

 this much thought ever since The A. I. Root 

 Co. shipped the two carloads of bees from 

 Florida last spring. Excellent time for 

 freight service was made; but had there 

 been a method for shipping by parcel post 

 the expense would have been cut tremen- 

 dously, and the time on the road materially 

 lessened. I have always been in favor of 

 the i^arcel-post system, and am more so 

 since its inception; but having seen so much 

 of the practical side of shipping packages 

 of all descriptions by mail, it must be ad- 

 mitted that we beekeepers, with our pres- 

 ent ec|uipment, are far from being prepar- 

 ed to reap any advantages in this line from 

 parcel post. 



Before any attempt is made to shi]) a 

 nucleus or even a half-pound or a one- 

 pound package of bees by mail, provision 

 should be made for a receptacle to combine 

 four qualities. First, strength; second, 

 ventilation ; third, protection to the bees ; 

 fourth, protection to those who handle it. 

 Tins means we can not use an ordinaiy 

 wire cage, such as the express companies 

 are now accepting. Neither can we use a 

 package such as Mr. J. A. Kreighbaum 

 describes, p. 132, Feb. 15. Wliile he has 

 partly solved the ventilation problem by 

 proriding the air-space between the two 



walls, he has neglected to protect both 

 ends and both sides. I infer from his de- 

 scription that a board was placed over the 

 top, and a piece of heavy felt on the bot- 

 tom; but no i^rotection is afforded either 

 end or either side against the possibility of 

 a hole being made through the two walls 

 of wire cloth. There is his weak point. 

 While ninety-nine cages like that will travel 

 safely by mail, the one hundredth one will 

 meet with an accident and cause untold 

 trouble. 



Btit few people realize the great number 

 of times a piece of mail is handled from the 

 time of mailing until reaching destination, 

 and the strain necessarily imposed upon it. 

 In the case of bees, each handling means an 

 additional jar and a consequent ruffling of 

 their tempei-s, and the liability of the postal 

 employee being stung. 



The postal laws and reg-ulations require 

 all mail to be dispatched from postoffices to 

 trains and vice versa in mail-sacks which 

 are closed tightly to guard against any loss 

 of mail. Hence the instant a parcel is 

 dropped into a mail-sack its identity is lost 

 until the sack is reopened. During tliis 

 time the package of bees will be in various 

 positions in the same sack. For instance, 

 at o!^e time it may be right side up ; again, 

 it may be on its side, and still later it may 



