THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST, 



189 



Sprinyville, N. Ca. 

 I take four bee journals, liut like the 

 'Afi" best of all. 



Jonx Baptis. 



I consider the Amkiucan Apicultu- 

 RiST invaluable to apiarists. 



A. G. W. 



Christianshurg, K;/., June i, 1887. 



Frikxd Alley, — Though ever so 

 busy and half sick, I have prepared a 

 hasty MS. for your July issue. Tlie 

 June issue of the "Api" is decidedly a 

 success. It would be hard to beat the 

 general make-up of your paper. I am 

 glad to see it prosper. 



Our bees have got on slowly and 

 badly till a week past ; weather unfav- 

 orable, wet, cloudy, cool in turns. 

 Bees are right now gathering honey 

 rapidh', "kind of pouring it in." 

 G. W. D. 



NOTES PROM THE BAY 

 STATE APIARY. 



Hknry Alley. 



SHIPPING BEES. 



I have received several lots of 

 bees from parties residing a long 

 distance from Wenham, and from 

 men who ought to be considered ex- 

 pert beekeepers ; j-et not one lot 

 out of all sent me were properly 

 packed, as all the combs in some of 

 the hives were broken off at the top 

 of the frame and more or less of 

 the combs were broken in all of 

 the hives but one. In one case a 

 very large colony was shipped to 

 me from a place which required a 

 week's time in coming ; yet, this 

 colony was not given half as much 

 r»om as the quantit}'^ of bees it 

 contained should have had. The 

 consequence was that two-thirds of 

 the. colony and all the brood were 

 dead. 



A large colon}^, even though it is 

 to be transported but a short dis- 



tance, should have a space of 

 not less than two inches under the 

 frames, and certainly four inches 

 above them. Unless plenty of 

 room is given the bees to cluster 

 off from the combs, the heat created 

 by the bees and brood combined, 

 will certainly destroy the entire 

 colony. The hive in question was 

 covered with wire-cloth, both top 

 and bottom, which Avas just right ; 

 and, had sufficient space been given 

 for the bees to cluster away from 

 the comb, there would not have 

 been one half a pint of dead bees 

 in the hive, notwithstanding the 

 fact the bees were on the road five 

 days. Another full colony was 

 shipped from Vermont ; the condi- 

 tion was very fair, but had the 

 weather been warm as it was a few 

 days previous the colony would 

 have been ruined, as the combs 

 were new, and there was nothing 

 between the bottom of the comb, 

 and bottom of the frame, nor be- 

 tween the bottom-bar and ])ot- 

 tom of hive to keep the combs 

 from breaking. As it was, onl}'- 

 two combs were broken and all in 

 a heap in the bottom of the hive. 

 One 3-frame nucleus came bj^ ex- 

 press, and as the packing was 

 about the same as with the full 

 colony all the combs were broken, 

 the brood dead, and all ruined but 

 a pint of bees and the queen. 



If this reaches the eye of any 

 of those parties, who shipped those 

 bees, I hope they will not forget 

 when they pack and ship more 

 bees to give plenty of ventilation, 

 and by all means, place some pieces 

 of wood between the bottom of the 

 combs and bottom-bar of the frame 

 as well as under the frame. Bees 

 thus packed will go safel}' hun- 

 dreds of miles. 



When I have a colony packed 

 and all ready to deliver to the ex- 

 pressman, I then dash about a pint 

 of cold water in among the bees 

 and combs. This will supply the 



