646 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 11, 1900. 



time after they begin to lay ; it is impossible to tell whether 

 they would be good layers or not ; you can't tell whether 

 they were injured in the mail or not. It seems to me that 

 only with queens that liave been kept a long time can we 

 tell whether they have been injured or not in this way. I 

 received about 6.'> queens in the mails last summer; there 

 was no injury that I could tell. Mr. Root has handled a 

 good many queens that have come from the Old Countrj'. I 

 think he could tell us a good deal. 



Frank Benton--It seems to me we should distinguish 

 as to the packing : that may cause these injuries. There is 

 no doubt that a queen occasionally is injured by the jarring 

 in the mails by the violent tlirowing of the sacks, but that 

 is very seldom. I have sent out some hundreds of queens 

 in the last few years, and not one arrived dead until this 

 year, and the report was that that queen having gone from 

 Washington, 1). C, to Philadelphia, had arrived, and lookt 

 as tho the l)ees had been smasht, or something of that kind. 

 I can't understand how it could have occurred e.xcept from 

 throwing the sack, but I believe more queens are injured by 

 faulty packing than by any other process whatever. I be- 

 gan sending quecn-bccs by mail 2H years ago. Some ship- 

 ments at first went across the (iulf of Mexico, across into 

 Texas, and arrived in excellent condition. The percentage 

 of successful shipments was very much behind the present 

 day, but I have been experimenting with that all these 

 j-ears ; I shipt some from the Island of Cyprus; I think I 

 sent the first ([ueen that went on a long sea voyage, sent 

 one lot of SO, and they arrived in good condition in London, 

 England ; that shipment was followed by others in 1872 ; 

 the first shipment was sent across the Atlantic to Australia 

 and New Zealand in 1.S7S; many arrived in as perfect con- 

 dition as they were .sent ; many times there were losses at- 

 tributed to tlie packing and accumulation of the mails, and 

 things of that kind. I have here in my hand a queen that 

 traveled by letter post from the Island of Cyprus to this 

 country, 18 days on the way, and when I took her from tlie 

 hive day before yesterday, I could not see that she had suf- 

 fered on her journey at all. That would not establish a 

 rule, but I have received large numbers of queens from 

 Austria. It is very rare indeed to get a queen that is in- 

 jured. Occasionally some of them, I think, are replaced 

 sooner, but it is very rare indeed to get one that is dead. 

 When the bees begin to suffer I feel the queen may be in- 

 jured ; she will be if the bees suffer very severely. The 

 food is a very important element, and should be neither too 

 soft nor too hard. It should be so prepared that it is im- 

 pervious to moisture. The central department of the cage 

 should be shut oft' as far as possible from the other com- 

 partments, and still be free of access in case of change of 

 temperature. It is better to put too few than too many 

 workers in ; too many cause the bees to sweat or smother. 

 but too few will stand a greater degree of cold if they have 

 this compartment shut off so they can draw back. The 

 cage should not be too large. When the bees are jolted 

 about, they should have room to be protected. I would not 

 take altogether very young bees or very old bees — perhaps 

 about seven days old. I think if we give heed to the man- 

 ner of packing, and be sure that our queens themselves are 

 vigorous, there will be a very much less percentage of loss 

 or injury thru the mails. 



Mr. Acklin — I would like to ask Mr, Benton how many 

 ■workers he puts into a cage with one compartment .' 



Mr. Benton — I never made a cage with one compart- 

 ment always three compartments. 



Mr. Acklin — The cage we use has one compartment for 

 the candy and one for the bees. 



Mr. IJenton — It is not the cage that has received my 

 name then. For transmission anywhere east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, I would put, during the summer season, about 

 eight to ten workers, tiot more than ten. In the cage should 

 be two compartments for the bees, and one for the food ; 

 in this instance each compartment about one inch across 

 and '4 inch deep. For transmission across the Atlantic I 

 put in about 12 to 14 workers, have the holes a little deeper, 

 nearly one inch deep and one inch across ; two good com- 

 partments for the bees, one for the food. That is the size I 

 would use in the shipments to Australia and New Zealand. 



Mr. Acklin — We have formerly been using a cage with 

 one large compartment, one side of which we have tin. We 

 found we had a large percentage of loss. We changed to 

 the Benton cage, and our losses were largely reduced. 

 Small compartments about '4 inch hole and 1 inch deep are 

 better than large openings. 



A.D.D. Wood — Twice the past season I have had a queen 

 from the same place ; a gentleman who has handled bees 

 for a good while, altho he is a foreigner, not conver- 



sant with our language, and did not read much in our books; 

 he furnisht queens at two different times, and both times 

 they died without being successfully introduced, and were 

 only carried a matter of three miles. I think in this in- 

 stance the deaths were due to the fact that he put no paste- 

 board or ail -tight covering over the wire in the face of the 

 cage. He u.sed the ventilated cage : did not protect them 

 in any way ; they were not in the mails at all. 



Mr. Acklin — That is a very important matter that Mr. 

 Benton mentions, of having three holes, one a dark com- 

 partment, and another that is lighted and better ventilated. 

 In cold weather we make a little diflerence in the packing 

 of our cage. We put oil paper over the top, up to the out- 

 side hole. I never before noticed there was a difference be- 

 tween our cage and the real Benton. 



(Continued next week.) 



Contributed Articles. | 



Importance of Preparation of Bees for Winter. 



BY H. D. BURKEI.L. 



IF we hope for a good honey crop in 1901, and of course 

 every live apiarist does, it is very necessary that bees go 

 into winter quarters in good condition. Unite the weak 

 colonies, feed the light ones, and, if bees are to be wintered 

 out-of-doors, tuck all in snug and warm before Nov. 1. In 

 my experience for a long term of years, bees winter better 

 if all work with them is finisht before settled cold weather 

 begins. Bees should have several good flights after they 

 are disturbed last, if possible. 



Bees often winter well when badly disturbed in winter, 

 but the}' winter in spite of it, not because of it. I once 

 heard — from a reliable source, too of a bee-keeper who ^ 

 made a practice of frequently stirring up his bees in winter, 

 pounding on the hives, etc. He "wanted them to wake up 

 and eat, and not get cold and stiff, and starve." And his 

 bees wintered well, too ; but no wise bee-keeper will follow 

 that plan. 



Once I had three hive-covers blow off during a wet 

 snow-storm in November, and when it was discovered some 

 hours later, there were several inches of snow on the bare 

 combs. While one-third of all the colonies I had died be- 

 fore May came, those three wintered well ; but I never 

 thought it was because they got wet. When the stores are 

 all right, and the bees of normal strength, and kept dry, 

 they will vfinter well anyway, but we seldom know surely 

 that the stores are all right. Therefore, it is always safest 

 to supply the good conditions every year that are always 

 under our control. It is better to be safe than sorry. 



My methods of preparing bees for winter are as fol- 

 lows : I have seen in August that all colonies I intend to 

 winter are of good strength, and have good queens. I 

 always have a fall crop of honey, large or small, which 

 lasts until frost comes, usually about the middle to the last 

 of September. Very soon after this time, the caps are re- 

 moved from the hives and each liive weighed. Light plat- 

 form scales are easily moved from hive to hive, and two 

 operators lift the hives to the scales and weigh them. This 

 work is soon done, and there is no guess-work about 

 weights. We know the weight of a hive and set of combs, 

 and, before the colonies are put away for winter, know that 

 each one has at least 3t) pounds of stores, and if some have 

 40 pounds, all the better. All these stores will not be used 

 before new honey comes in the spring, but sometimes little 

 honey is carried from early bloom, because of unfavorable 

 weather, and I prefer that every colony shall have sullicient 

 stores in the fall to last until June. It saves time and tin- 

 kering. 



Sometimes combs of honey are taken from extra-heavy 

 hives for lighter ones ; sometimes the light ones are given 

 frames of honey reserved for this purpose when extracting, 

 and .sometimes I have to feed sugar. 



If I lived in a locality where there was no fall honey 

 crop, and it was necessary to feed, I would feed in August 

 a thin syrup made of about equal quantities by weight of 

 water and sugar, mixt cold, and fed slowly. For feeding 

 late I want a syrup nearly of the consistency of ripe honey, 

 and this should be fed as quickly as possible, so as not to 



