GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



as you have so often seen. Cages prepared 

 with fresh candy every day you send out 

 bees might do, but this would be well nigh 

 impracticable ; for the cages could not well 

 be used again, and those kept in stock or 

 sold would endanger the lives of the queens, 

 unless they were used at once. Honey mix- 

 ed with the candy, although it answers well 

 for short voyages, will never do for Cali- 

 fornia and Texas, and the bees fed with it 

 often have distended bodies, even when sent 

 but short distances. Hayhurst's queens seem 

 brightest and most natural, and his cages 

 are probably filled a few at a time, and just 

 before they are sent off. The experiments 

 made with coffee or loaf sugar, years ago 

 when the dysentery prevailed, seemed to 

 indicate that it is a sure remedy for the 

 distended bodies, and that as a diet it is 

 more wholesome than honey. How shall we 

 keep the candy from getting dry? Wetting 

 it, just before being sent out, often daubs 

 the bees, and answers for but a short time, 

 even then. Putting in a sponge filled with 

 water does better, but that will get dry and 

 hard, even while coming from the Southern 

 States, to say nothing of crossing the great 

 dry deserts on the way to California. Some 

 plan to enable the bees themselves to mix the 

 sugar and water daily just as they need it, is 

 what is wanted ; can this be done ? M,y mind 

 wandered on a glass honeycomb ; but the 

 motion of the cars would shake the water 

 all out. I thought of a large glass bead, 

 with the water held in by capillary attrac- 

 tion ; and, finally, I went into the drugstore 

 and asked for some vei-y small vials. They 

 were out of half-dram, but had dram vials. 

 I thought these too large, but finally took 

 some, and soon had one filled with water 

 with a gi'oove cut in one side of the cork, 

 that would just let a bee get his tongue in. 

 Tt was placed over a ten-cent candy-cage, 

 as shown in the right-hand cut below.* 



As soon as I got it nicely fixed a friend 

 sent three hybrids by mail. Although they 

 had had a long journey, and one bee was 

 dead already, they were given a bottle each 

 and placed back of the typewriter. They 

 found the orifice in the cork almost at once, 

 and were very soon scampering about in 

 the cage as lively as could be. They have 

 been now caged in the same way ten days, 

 and are as brisk and lively as one could de- 

 sire. After it was settled that water and 

 candy was all they needed (and I was sur- 

 prised to find that a dozen bees would con- 

 sume a dram of water in about ten days), 

 the problem was how to fasten the bottle 

 in the cage for shipment, so that it could 



* As the cut referred to is not readily available 

 at this late date, and as it is not specially important, 

 we omit it. 



never shake loose, and yet so that it could 

 be taken out to be filled. Our friend Will, 

 who handles the queens, solved this prob- 

 lem by pushing a pin through the end of 

 the cage and through the cork of the bot- 

 tle, as seen in the cut at the left. The cage is 

 represented with the wire cloth removed, to 

 show the position of the bottle. The other 

 end of the bottle is fastened by a pin set 

 over it. As soon as it seemed to be a suc- 

 cess, all the queens, both blacks and hy- 

 brids, of which we have a great quantity 

 that have been shipped and stopped because 

 no one will pay the express charges on 

 them, were supplied with bottles of water, 

 and not one has died since, where they had 

 any kind of chance. They have been sent 

 out daily, by express, sometimes as many 

 as 20 or more a day, but not one failure 

 has yet been reported. In one of the larger 

 cages where the bees have been caged over a 

 week, the bees clustered precisely as in 

 comb-building; their bodies are small and 

 natui'al, and yet they have consumed quite 

 a large quantity of candy or sugar, and 

 have had no fly at all. 



Many of you have lost queens while cag- 

 ed and lying on the frames. Sometimes it 

 was hard to explain why they died. We 

 now introduce all our queens in these bot- 

 tle cages, and have not yet lost one in them. 

 One imported queen was lost ; but, when ex- 

 amined, it was found that a cage had been 

 used, by mistake, without any bottle in it. 

 For sending bees across the ocean I would 

 use cages with two bottles in them, placed 

 with their mouths in opposite directions. 

 If the cage should stand on end, so that 

 the water was not near the mouth in one of 

 the bottles, the other one would be just 

 right. It makes me shiver to think of the 

 poor bees I have probably consigned to 

 death by thirst during these long summer 

 days, simply because I knew no better. 

 Hereafter the little fellows shall have all 

 the water they wish; and if my invention 

 should be of any use to the bee friends of 

 our land, give God the praise, for it was 

 given me in answer to prayer. A brisk 

 trade is now starting up by express, and I 

 shall probably soon want all the queens you 

 can raise, if it be really true that we are to 

 have no more losses in handling these won- 

 derful little friends of ours. 



Aug. 8, 1878. — The three hybrid queens 

 have now been in the bottle cages 11 days, 

 and are as lively as at first. To-be sure that 

 they had nothing but candy and water, I 

 wrote to the friend that sent them, asking 

 how he made the candy. This is his reply : 



The way I make my candy is this: I put coflfee A 

 sugar in a new tin cup, and add water until, by 

 mixing or stirring it with a paddle, every particle 



