Sept. 14, 1905 



THfc AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



647 



-V (Eontributcb -f 

 Special Clrticlcs 



=\ 



J 



Injury to Queens in the Mail 



BY C. P. DADANT 



MY attention has been called to an editorial on page 565. 

 It has alwiivs been my opinion that valuable queens 

 were often hurt in the mails, but the mail service is so 

 prompt, and the cost of transportation by this method is so 

 economical, that it is natural for both (jueen-breeders and 

 bee-keepers to adopt this method of conveyance. But it was 

 a long time after the mailing of queens was adopted that 1 

 could persuade myself to use this method. 



The transporting of bees was not formerly as successful 

 as it is now. and for years it was thought impossible to ship 

 bees from Europe with safety. The queens sent from Italy 

 were always sent by express, and, in most instances at first, 

 were literally drowned in honey or water, by the mistaken 

 solicitude of the shippers. 



In an article lately published in the American 15ee Jour- 

 nal, I was made to say that we imported as many as 40 queens 

 a year from Italy. It should have read 400 instead of 40. This 

 was after the importation became successful through repeated 

 trials. These queens were all sent in what would now be 

 called "baby nuclei " — little boxes about 4x6 inches, contain- 

 ing two combs, one with very ripe, white honey or sugar 

 syrup, the other absolutely dry, so that the bees could have 

 room on dry combs. Plenty of ventilation, old bees fresh 

 from the fields or just departing for the fields, and no water. 

 These were the successful conditions needed. 



We often found some of the little combs partly filled with 

 eggs, probably layed during the first part of the journey, but 

 which had failed to hatch because of the lack of sufficient 

 warmth. These little " baby nuclei " were bunched in lots of 

 20 to 24, strengthened with a sheet of tin on the outside, a 

 cushion on the underside of the package, and a handle at the 

 top. These packages were always sent by express at great 

 cost, but the bees came in fine condition, and no better queens 

 could be had than those thus received. Yet they were the 

 Italian bees in their natural conditions, without any select 

 breeding, for the new ideas were just beginning to make their 

 way over there. A great deal of progress has been achieved 

 since. 



The damage to the queens sent through the mails is due 

 mainly, in my opinion, to the rough handling of the mail-bags 

 in many places. To be sure, the queen that is heavy with 

 eggs suff'ers the most from this rough handling, while the 

 young queen that has just begun to lay is hardier. We all 

 know how heavy and matronly a mature queen is, how easily 

 she drops from the combs, owing to her enlarged abdomini, 

 and it is very easy to imagine that her condition renders her 

 unfit for rough handling. Perhaps if she were made to fast 

 for a few days there would be more safety in sending her out. 



I am not a friend of the express companies, who seem to 

 want to eat up the value of what they transport before giving 

 it up, but until a better method of transporting is devised, I 

 would much prefer to send a valuable queen iij a " baby 

 nucleus " by express than to risk her through the mails. It 

 seems to be now out of the question to ship anything even as 

 small as a 2-frame nucleus through the breadth of our land. 

 Bees are too cheap in every State to be sent at the expensive 

 rates that are prevailing, and a (jueen is just as safely tnins- 

 ported with a retinue of SO worker-bees, in the summer, and 

 probably more safely than if she were left in a populous col- 

 ony, no matter how carefully the combs might be adjusted for 

 shipment. Hancock Co., III. 



Uniting Weak Colonies with Strong Ones 



BY W. T. CAKY 



I SEE on page 570, Mr. Hasty, in commenting on Kdwin 

 Kevins' hard luck in trying to unite a weak colony with a 

 strong one by the use of an excluder, to save both queens, 

 thinks we need more reports. Well, here is another report. 

 It iwcll remembered I reported a case I had last spring in 



answer to Dr. Miller's request, and it was published on page 

 523. The case I now have to report is this : 



How I was about to requeen a colony but didn't. But 

 first 1 would like to tell how I did re(|ueen 2 colonies in an old- 

 style way. I killed the old queens and set nuclei on top with 

 young queens in shallow extracting supers, one of these 

 nuclei being quite strong and almost filling the super ; the 

 other was quite weak, covering about three frames. Result : 

 Two big battles, a lot of dead bees in front of those two hives, 

 queens quit laying, and a lot of cells built. The hardest fight- 

 ing was done where I placed the weaker nucleus. I found 

 the queens all right, however, with their cliques, and I de- 

 stroyed the cells where the hard fighting had been done, 

 and so settled the dilliculty in that hive, but thinking the 

 other queen was mistress of the situation, I closed the hive 

 without observing the cells, until the young queens began 

 hatching, and precipitated a swarm. 



Now for the case in (|uestion. I formed a nucleus consist- 

 ing of 2 shallow extracting combs with a little brood and 

 honey, a handful of bees, and a cell placed in one side of a 

 super with a division-board. The hive to be requeened was 

 provided with a plain flat cover on the edges of which I layed 

 j^-inch strips to form a temporary bottom-board with a small 

 entrance atone rear corner, and placed the nucleus up there. 

 As soon as the young queen had hatched and was laying 

 in good earnest, I filled that super with empty combs, and 

 then removed the temporary bottom-board and replaced it 

 with two wood-zinc honey-boards, retaining the J-^-inch strips 

 to maintain the rear entrance for the young queen's escort. 



Now for results : There was very little quarreling. Per- 

 haps a half dozen dead bees were thrown out to the rear, but 

 in less than two days that super was half full of bees, and 

 and that young queen was perfectly at home among them, and 

 laying "to beat the band." My theory is that the old queen 

 below entertained her own field-workers and other principal 

 forces, and kept them contented and practically isolated from 

 the seat of conspiracy, while the young bees that wandered 

 up there were easily persuaded to follow the bandwagon. 



Now they remained in that position for a week, when I 

 looked in the hive below and found the old queen doing so 

 well that my heart failed me, and I did not kill her, but in the 

 meantime I had a swarm issue from another hive and strike 

 for the woods forthwith, while I was fixing to go to Sunday- 

 school. So the next day I destroyed the cells in that other 

 old brood-chamber (hybrid rascals), and placed that nucleus 

 on top of it, and all went merrily on. 



Now, there is one point I would emphasize, and that is, 

 the use of two honey-boards. I never tried it with one, but it 

 occurred to me that two queens, both being as free as those 

 two were, would likely raise a row if they got their horns to- 

 gether. Then, also, that rear entrance enabled the young 

 queen's escort to avoid passing through the old brood-chamber 

 below while negotiations were being carried on with the 

 young bees that were drawn up. Carroll Co., Mo. 



Why Bee-Supplies are High— Home-Made 

 Hives 



BY^ .1. E. .TOHNSON 



THERE has been considerable written in bee-papers, both 

 pro and con, in regard to high prices for bee-supplies. I 

 have bought IM-story hives in the flat for 73 cents each, 

 and they were good ones— in fact, the same firm still sells 

 them, biit charges $1.55 each for them in lots of 10. 



However, this hive iiuestiou has two sides. If hives could 

 be bought at 73 cents each at this day, every Tom, Dick and 

 Harry would be in the bee-business. The market already 

 suffers from the fact that there are so many who have only a 

 few colonies of bees and don't take proper care of them, and 

 bring their honey— what thev have— to the stores and ex- 

 change it for groceries at whatever price the merchant sees ht 

 to pay. And they don't care how much it injures the market, 

 as they do not depend upon bee-keeping for a living, but just 

 consider that the honov thev get costs them almost nothing, 

 and thev are just that much ahead. They don't pretend to 

 scrape the sections or grade their honey, and I find that some 

 of their sections weigh 18 ounces, others as low as 10 ounces 

 and some even having contained brood. Now, if the high 

 prices of supplies would drive every bee-keper of this kind out 

 of business, it would be a blessing to any community. 



While I think prices of supplies are too high, I also find 

 customers occasionally who think IS cents for honey is also 

 too high. 1 see by Gleanings that for several years their fac- 



