VOL. LX— NO. 3 



HAMILTON, ILL., MARCH, 1920 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YFAR 



BEES BY PARCEL POST 



Description of a New Gage for Sending Bees by Mail 



By Allen Latham 



IN the number of American Bee 

 Journal for May, 1919, was pub- 

 lished an article under this title, 

 and in that I promised to describe 

 my device for shiping bees by parcel 

 post. Since the first article was writ- 

 ten I have had much more experience 

 with the shipping case which I have 

 invented and used, and shall 'tell 

 -frankly of its deficiencies as well as 

 it excellences. 



In the May article I mentioned 

 the splendid success I had had with 

 this case. This success 'continued^ 

 during the season of 1919 in every 

 case where the trip did not consume 

 over four or five days. But this past 

 summer I essayed to send bees to 

 England, also to a distant point in 

 California. Whatever the cause, I 

 have to admit failure in all of these 

 long distant shipments. Short dis- 

 ance shipments ar« one thing, while 

 those that consume ten days or two 

 weeks are another. A trip across 

 this continent, thru the desert west 

 with its arid atmosphere, and a trip 

 across the Atlantic with it,': humid 

 atmosphere, are again very different. 



The editors of this magazine have 

 prepared cuts of my shipping case. 

 These with my description should 

 make very clear the principles of 

 this case and method of carrying out 

 these principles. 



As said before, every effort has 

 been made to devise a container in 

 which the bees would normally keep 

 quiet and thus not use up their ener- 

 gy in wasteful excitement. As will 

 be seen, this is accomplished by mak- 

 ing the case dark and furnishing the 

 confined bees with air thru indirect 

 passages. 



This case is a six-walled box, made 

 either of thin board or some strong 

 material like the various wall-boards 

 now sold very commoniy. The bot- 



tom is double. The two bottoms are 

 spaced apart about three-fourths of 

 an inch. The inner bottom has a 

 round hole some three inches in di- 

 ameter. This hole is surmounted by 

 either a cone or a cylinder of wire 

 cloth. In the illustration the case 

 has a cone or thimble of wire cloth 

 rising some three inches, but some- 

 times I substitute a cylinder of cloth 

 rising five inches. The side walls 

 vary in depth. Two of them, not 

 adjacent ones, extend to cover both 

 bottoms, while the other two cover 

 only the inner bottom. Thus a space 

 is left on two sides at the bottom for 

 ventilation. These open spaces are 

 shielded from rays of light by strips 

 or blinds fastened on raised blocks. 

 These blinds and the bottoms are 

 painted a dull black on the inside 

 surfaces so that any rays of light 

 getting past the lilinds are largely 



Package of Bees as it reached Hamilton 



absorbed and thus very little light 

 indeed gets into the interior of the 

 case. 



The cover or top of the case is 

 removable and to this is fastened 

 nearly a pound of soft candy. No 

 arrangement is made for water on 

 the theory that the bees keep the 

 air within so humid that they feel 

 no need of water. In fact, experience 

 with the case lends credence to the 

 idea that often the bees suffer thru 

 an excess of moisture rather than 

 from a lack. This was unquestiona- 

 bly the case with the shipments that 

 went to England. The surviving bees 

 in those shipments were daubed and 

 the food dribbling. On the other 

 hand, the last shipment to California 

 arrived in a condition suggesting that 

 the bees starved from lack of mois- 

 ture, which they needed to liquefy 

 their candy. 



Right at this point I would suggest 

 that experiments should be carried 

 out to determine the moisture con- 

 tent of food given bees in transit. 

 This content should vary with the 

 conditions of the journey they are to 

 traverse. We ought to have available 

 some data that will inform us as to 

 the needs of the different routes over 

 which bees may be sent. Some routes 

 need very dry feed, while others need 

 very moist feed. 



I am well aware that most persons 

 upon first seeing this case will not be 

 disposed in its favor. It is so con- 

 trary to their accepted ideas of the 

 needs of bees that they will naturally 

 condemn it. Few there are but will 

 say at once that there is insufficient 

 ventilation, but asecond look will 

 convince any keen observer that this 

 case, though it may not force air 

 upon the bees, does, nevertheless, 

 furnish them an opportunity for get- 

 ting air. 



