1894. 



THE . I MEBIt '. I N BEE- KEEPER. 



181 



yery fine indeed. We think no finer made. 



If von send ms good gooda to every one who 

 orders from you as you did to us, I see no 

 reason why you should not hold them as 

 permanent customers. We expect to in- 

 crease our apiary next spring, and our 

 orders in ihe future will probably be larger 

 than in the past. Wishing you sii :i ess, we 



remain, Yours very respectfully, 



Mt'WlU.IAUS & Mll.l.KH. 



Prattsville, Nov. 12. iSiH. 



Editor American Bee Keeper, -Sir: 



What is the furthest distance you have on 

 record of sending bees and queens by mail '! 

 This last mail 1 received by post a shipment 

 of six Albino queens from yourcountry, but 

 they were all dead. The transit occupied 

 30 days, but as the box was marked " Re- 

 ceived in had condition, San Francisco," I 

 take it they were dead (or had been tamper- 

 ed with i before reaching that point. I have 

 only had one loss in queens From Australia, 

 but nearly all the queens received from 

 America by New Zea landers and Austral- 

 ians do not survive. Mrs. Jennie Atchley 

 sent out a heavy shipment to Australia, some 

 in cages by post, and some in nuclei, but I 

 believe not one arrived alive. 



I notice some American breeders guaran- 

 tee safe arrival to any part of the world, 

 and as far as I can hear several have arriv- 

 ed safely (from Root and Doolittle), but 

 they were " few and far between." I know 

 one person who ordered eighteen and only 

 got one alive. 



The cages for hot weather should be larg- 

 er than for colder — the Benton being the 

 best. American breeders would do well to 

 test long distance cages, and one thing I 

 would like them to try, i. e., send queens by 

 post towards the end of your season, say 

 Nov. or Dec, and they will arrive here al- 

 most in the height of the honey season, 

 which is later than yours. Yours, &c, 



\V. J. May. 



Parawai School, Thames, X. /., < let. 27, 

 1894. 



[As we do not deal in queens our experi- 

 ence in shipping them long distances is 

 very limited and in most instances has not 

 been very successful. Mr. Root and others 



have had more or less success in delivering 

 queens safely in Australia and New Zea- 

 land, hut it is :i long distance and only a 

 comparatively small proportion of queens 

 have arrived alive. We believe there is 

 yet considerable to learn in long distance 

 shipping Ed I 



(From the Progressive Bee Keeper), 



Wayside Fragments. 



l\\ SOMNAMBULIST. 



Did you know there had been a 

 meeting of the busy bee keepers of 

 North America up on the " Big Mud- 

 dy " ? They swarmed out from their 

 homes and struck a bee line for St. 



Joe seph. (You see I have at 



least learned one thing, that it is 

 for a Dr. Miller to leave off that last 

 syllable, for no matter how much the 

 St. Joe inadvertently slipped out 

 alone the "seph" was immediately 

 forthcoming, and why should I care 

 to take a risk which that cautious 

 Doctor declines. Ami if by any 

 stretch of the imagination Bro. 

 Abbott can possibly feel that the cur- 

 tailing of the name of St. Joseph 

 detracts in any degree from its great- 

 ness, then we, one and all, without 

 exception, will join in adding syll- 

 ables thereto, rather than eliminating 

 therefrom. 



The clerk of the weather, as though 

 cognizant of the fact that Missouri, 

 and more especially St. Joseph, was 

 to be put on exhibit, furnished a 

 sample of our most delightful fall 

 weather all through the session. 



