found none melted : all in good condi- 

 tion. 



We shall make no honey this year in 

 California. If the bees get their living 

 it is all we hope for. I also lost by the 

 tire my bee range and 4 acres of wheat. 

 Altogether the loss will amount to $500, 

 uninsured. I use frame 11 J£x9 in. inside 

 measure ; 9 frames in lower hive and 12 

 in super. 



This valley, the Ojai (O-hi), is a fine 

 place for bee-culture ; we have 6 apia- 

 ries here. Last season the largest pro- 

 duced 20 tons of extracted and 5 tons of 

 comb honey. The honey was marketed 

 in New York City. 



Nordhoff, Cal., June 7, 1879. 



From the Indiana Farmer. 



How to Prepare Bees for Shipping. 



J. M. BROOKS. 



Having had considerable e^erience in 

 shipping bees, 1 will «ive my way of pack- 

 ing them for long distances in warm weath- 

 er : If you have an empty hive, like those 

 containing the bees, prepare it by sawing a 

 hole in the bottom board 8 or 10 in. square. 

 Tack wire cloth over this ; and unless the 

 hive has legs to it, nail cleats on either side 

 of the bottom to raise the hive up ; allowing 

 a free circulation of air under it. Saw some 

 sticks of straight-grained pine— three-six- 

 teenths square is about right— cut them in 

 lengths one-half inch longer than your 

 frames measure in height. Cut a notch at 

 each end of every stick. Take small copper 

 or sott iron wire and cut it into3-in. lengths; 

 twist a wire on one end of each stick. Hav- 

 ing tham all ready, lift out one of the side 

 frames, fasten these sticks, 4 to 6 according 

 to the length of your frame, 2 to 3 on each 

 side of the combs, twisting the wire tightly 

 around the ends of the sticks. They are 

 intended to hold the combs from falling out 

 should they become loose in the frames. 

 Set the frame in the prepared hive as fast 

 as you put on the sticks, and in the same or- 

 der that they were in their own hive. Space 

 the frames an equal distance apart, and nail 

 them down. A. small nail or brad in each 

 end will hold them from moving together. 

 With an inch bit bore holes in the rim of 

 the lid or cap, tacking wire cloth over them 

 on the inside. Place the lid on the hive, 

 leaving off the honey board or other cover- 

 ing you have had over the frames, letting 

 the bees go up and cluster above the combs 

 into the lid. Fasten the lid down securely 

 with strips of sheet-iron, using screws or 

 nailing them to the lid and body. Pack 

 them all in this manner, and the evening 

 before you move them tack wire cloth over 

 the entrances. 



Bees, to go long distances by freight, must 

 be carefully packed, and have free circula- 

 tion of air through the hive in hot weather. 

 In placing the hives in the car, be careful to 

 have the combs run lengthwise of the car. 

 Never set hives crosswise. The sudden 

 starting and stopping of freight trains will 



keep the frames constantly slashing to- 

 gether, and killing the bees. I hardly think 

 it necessary to fasten the frames at the bot- 

 tom, if you are careful in loading as above. 

 Bees to be shipped by freight and be 7 to 10 

 days on the road, should, if possible, have 

 some one to care for them, giving a little 

 water occasionally, and wetting the hives 

 and car floor to keep them cool, it they seem 

 to become uneasy. Never let the sun strike 

 a colony while closed up, and be sure they 

 have an abundance of air before you start 

 with thenf, or you may have trouble. I 

 don't think it will be necessary to take 

 away any of their honey, if you are careful 

 to put on sticks enough to support the 

 combs. 



From the London Times. 



The Bee's Cell. 



REV. C. LACY. 



In your excellent article on Mr. Ro- 

 mance's lecture on animal intelligence at 

 the British Association, you allude to the 

 case of the bee's cell, and say, in reference 

 to the mathematical properties of the hexa- 

 gon, " we must either admit that every bee 

 solves a difficult mathematical problem, or 

 else this problem has been solved for all 

 time in the construction of their nervous 

 condition." Either of these admissions im- 

 plies that the bee itself makes its cell in a 

 hexagonal form. There is, however, a 

 simpler explanation. The hexagonal form 

 is, quite independently of the bee itself, 

 the necessary mechanical result of the mode 

 in which the bees work, and the cell could 

 not by any possibility be in any other form. 



The case is this : The instinct of the 

 bee is to make a cell in the cylindrical form 

 by the circular motion of its head, just as a 

 silkworm makes its cocoon or a burrowing 

 animal its hole. This is shown by the outer 

 cell of every honey comb, which are always 

 semi-cylindrical where there has been no 

 pressure from the inside. If the bee, there- 

 fore, worked alone its cell would be cylin- 

 drical. Another instinct of bees, however, 

 is to swarm and crowd together in every- 

 thing they do. They thus work at their 

 cells side by side, and every bee as it works 

 away at its cylinder is surrounded by as 

 many others as can get close to it. That 

 number is exactly six, neither more nor 

 less. Any one can ascertain this for him- 

 self by placing a coin on a table and then 

 putting round it as many similar coins as he 

 can. He will find tbjat six such coins will 

 exactly touch each other, and each exactly 

 touch the central one. This is the geomet- 

 rical law which produces the hexagonal 

 form of the cell. Each bee is pressed upon 

 by six others (excepting, of course, the ex- 

 treme outside ones), and thus the intersti- 

 tial curves of the cylinders get squeezed out 

 as they are made, become straight lines by 

 the mutual pressure, and every cylinder 

 necessarily becomes a hexagon as its ulti- 

 mate form. 



The same cause produces the peculiar 

 prismatic form at the bottom of each cell. 

 The instinct of the bees is not only to clus- 



