1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



81 



mean to cast reflections on the other 

 fellow, for we have had our troubles 

 along with the rest. Bees would die 

 enroute, sometimes when on the road 

 but 24 hours. The reason for this was 

 because the bees had worried them- 

 selves to death trying to get out 

 through the wire screen. The rem- 

 edy for this I shall explain later. 

 Many queens were killed or balled 

 and injured, and the customer would 

 write that the packages were queen- 

 less. 



The opinion has become prevalent 

 that queens do not stand shipment 

 well in combless packages. State- 

 ments of this kind have been made in 

 this Journal. In the March number, 

 1917, in an excellent article, Mr. A. G. 

 Woodman gives his experience in 

 buying bees from the South. He 

 writes : "One of the greatest troubles 

 was poor queens. The packages, af- 

 ter being in the hive a week or two, 

 would be found queenless, or the 

 queen would not be laying as she 

 should." In the Michigan State Con- 

 vention held December 8 and 9, it was 

 the opinion of all who had bought 

 package bees that the greatest obsta- 

 cle in these purchases was the fact 

 that packages arrived with dead 

 queens or that queens were injured 

 and soon superseded. It is my 

 belief that there is no better or safer 

 way to ship queens than in combless 

 packages. The trouble is not in the 

 shipping of the queen, but in the in- 

 troduction of the queen to the pack- 

 age. Many do not stop to consider 

 that the queens are mated in nuclei 

 and must be introduced to the pack- 

 age. It has been my experience that 

 it is fully as difficult to introduce a 

 queen to a package of bees as it is to 

 a regular colony in a hive. One prac- 

 tice is to send the queen in a mailing 

 cage fastened to the outside of the 

 cage containing the bees, on the the- 

 ory that they will be;ome acquainted 

 during the shipment. In this way the 

 burden of introduction is thrown on 

 the purchaser and the loss borne by 

 him. We have found that where 

 bees do not have their own queen 

 loose with them in the shipping cage, 

 they fret and do not stand shipment 

 as well. 



One party in Michigan reported 

 having purchased 100 packages from 

 the South and, out of the 100, 60 were 

 queenless and at once developed lay- 

 ing workers, which rendered them al- 

 most worthless. 



That it may be of some service to 

 others in remedying these defects, is 

 the purpose of this article. The ques- 

 tion has frequently arisen in my 

 mind that as we can send queens and 

 a few bees all over the world with 

 success, why can we not do the saine 

 with a larger number of bees if the 

 conditions are right? In the ordi- 

 nary mailing cage the bees are kept 

 mostly in the dark, while in the com- 

 mon wire cloth pound package cage 

 the bees see light, but do not seem to 

 see the wires, and they try to get out, 

 and thus worry themselves to death. 

 Some time ago Gleanings showed a 

 w^ooden cage with saw kerfs in the 

 sides, which they report as giving per- 

 fect satisfaction. 



Last season we used the cage as 

 shown in the cut, and it gave perfect 

 results either by parcels post or ex- 

 press. This cage is not difficult to 

 make and is not expensive. The ven- 

 tilation, being in the bottom and top, 

 cannot be shut off if the cages are 

 placed close together in shipping. Two 

 short wire-cloth cylinders, one in the 

 top and one in the bottom, prevent 

 the bees from crowding toward the 

 openings and shutting off ventilation. 

 The cylinders are not difficult to 

 make. Wire screen is wrapped 

 around a cylindrical piece of wood 

 and forced through the meshes of a 

 square piece of wire screen and the 

 ends bent over. This makes a solid 

 cylinder that will stand shipment 

 well. Short legs on the bottom in- 

 sure ventilation there and the wooden 

 handle prevents stoppage of ventila- 

 tion there should the cage be cov- 

 ered up. A thin piece of wood sup- 

 ported by cleats on top of the cage 

 keeps out the light and little light can 

 enter from the bottom. Another fea- 

 ture of this cage is the removable 

 bottom. To get the bees out it is 

 only necessary to remove the screws 

 that hold on the bottom and shake the 

 bees in front of the hive, or they may 

 be shaken into the top of the hive and 

 the cover put on. 



The question of water or no water 

 has been discussed at length, but our 

 decision, after trying both side by 

 side, is that the bees without water 

 go as well, if not better, than those 

 supplied with water. 



The bees in this light-proof cage 

 hang in a cluster and seem to be as 

 contented as bees in the regular 

 mailing cage. Upon one occasion, 

 while experimenting, I took several 

 packages in the wooden cage and 

 several in the wire cage to the post- 

 office for shipment. While waiting 

 there, men came at different intervals 

 smoking cigars. The bees in the wire 

 cages would at once begin to roar and 

 would continue to roar and fret for 

 some time after the smoke had 

 cleared away. The bees in the wood- 

 en cages never seemed to be dis- 

 turbed by the slight odor of smoke 

 and remained quietly hanging in a 

 cluster. 



Now let us go back to the subject 

 of introducing the qujen to the pack- 



age. As above stated, for best re- 

 sults, the queen should be at liberty 

 in the package with the bees. By any 

 known method of introducing the 

 queen to the package, there will be a 

 percentage, and usually a large per- 

 centage, of loss. Many queens are 

 killed outright. Some are crippled 

 and prove inferior and are soon su- 

 perseded or may remain at the head 

 of a colony and lose for the bee- 

 keeper a crop of honey. Sometimes 

 the bees apparently accept a queen, 

 but as soon as they are placed in a 

 hive and given a frame of brood, 

 they will pounce upon the queen and 

 kill her. In shipping package bees 

 with queen, it is my opinion there is 

 only one safe and fair course to pur- 

 sue, and that is to introduce the 

 queen to the colony from which the 

 bees are to be taken and then, after 

 the queen is laying and safely ac- 

 cepted, she is shaken into the package 

 with the bees she has come t recog- 

 nize as her own. In such cases the 

 queen is never killed or injured and 

 the risk of introduction is borne by 

 the one who sells the package, as it 

 should be. 



It seems to me, in all fairness to the 

 one who buys package bees, that the 

 queen should be safely introduced tie- 

 fore being shipped and the shipper 

 should not only make good all losses 

 of queens but should also make good 

 any loss to the package which re- 

 sulted from the loss of the queen. If, 

 for instance, the package arrived 

 queenless and developed laying work- 

 ers, so as to be worthless, the one 

 who sold the bees should furnish both 

 package of bees and queen. If re- 

 quired to do this, it would insure more 

 careful introduction by those doing 

 pound package business. 



Indiana. 



Montana Beekeepers Meet 



The beekeepers of Montana held a 

 lively convention al Billings on Feb- 

 ruary 2 and 3. Nearly all present were 

 engaged in honey production on a 

 commercial scale. Montana is one 

 of the best States for honey produc- 

 tion. Much of the time was given up 

 to the discussion of the control of 

 foulbrood and the necessity of se- 

 curing legislation for the protection 

 of the bees. 



Smith's wood cage 



