404 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



October 



in the first row, and the third row 

 behind the gaps in the second, and so 

 on. Piles of spare supers were made 

 in one or two places in the yard, 

 partly to save time and steps and 

 partly to help virgins to mark their 

 hives. Some doubts as to the advis- 

 ability of this were felt at first, for 

 the removal of the piles was bound 

 to occur in the rush of the honey 

 flow, but it worked out all tight, for 

 the piles were unchanged while the 

 queens were getting mated, :ind if 

 any of the other bees got mi.xed up 

 we never discovered it, anyway. 



Since working with this arrange- 

 ment a couple of seasons, a number 

 of advantages have emerged that 

 were not suspected when t?.e yard 

 was thus laid out. In the first place 

 there is no need now of hive numbers. 

 We used to have them made of tin, 

 following Dr. Miller, and the number 

 stayed with the stand. So if the 

 body of the hive had to be moved, the 

 number had to be transferred, and 

 that took time Since the new scheme 

 the units have been denominated by 

 a letter and the hives composing it 

 by the numbers from one to six. 

 These numbers run the same with 

 each unit, so that, for example, Al 

 is the northwest hive of unit A, Bl 

 the northwest hive of Unit B, and so 

 on. The record book now has its 

 pages divided into six, to correspond, 

 and when planning for work in the 

 house it is a real pleasure to be able 

 to "visualize" each hive as the cogi- 

 tations go on. In changing the loca- 

 tion of a hive, for any reason, it is 

 only necesary to make a notation in 

 the book. The colony automatically 

 gets its number from its njw loca- 

 tion. 



Then there is a saving of steps 

 that is no small advantage. In the 

 middle of each unit there is n vacant 

 place about six feet square and the 

 wheelbarrow with tools, etc., or if 

 honey is being taken off, a hand-cart 

 is brought to the north side of the 

 unit where there are no hiver. The 

 six colonies are now just handy for 

 work and can all be inspected without 



moving more than a step at a time. 

 If brood or honey is needed, or any 

 equalizing arrangements are going 

 on, there is sure to be in the unit on 3 

 of the six colonies that can spare 

 what is needed. When honey is being 

 taken off it is usually possible to get 

 a load off one unit, and this saves "J 

 lot of journeying around to collect 

 enough to go to the honey house. 



This season, two more develope- 

 ments are being tried. The first is 

 that during the early months the bees 

 were studied and one sixth of the 

 colonies chosen for increase, the^e 

 being the best of the stock. In ali 

 cases the bees were worked around 

 so as to bring one of the breeders to 

 No. 6 in each unit. This A6, B6, C6, 

 and so on, were all of good enough 

 pedigree to be used for queen-raising. 

 They were built up to good strength, 

 and when the honey season really 

 started, they were dequeentd long 

 enough to start them buildinij queen 

 cells. These having been s:tarted, 

 others in each unit were treated on 

 the Demaree plan, and brood raised 

 to a third story, and the combs with 

 started queen cells placed here. 

 When ripe they were used for nuclei 

 and this has proved to be the easiest 

 and quickest method of increare from 

 selected colonies that we have found. 



The second experiment does not fit 

 in with the first, and it has baen tried 

 out on a limited number of units at 

 one end of the yard. Briefly, it con- 

 sists of removing one hive of the pair 

 at the beginning of the honey flow 

 to throw the field bees into the re- 

 maining one. In addition to the fieM 

 bees, all the brood and bees rrom the 

 removed hive, except two combs, were 

 added to the hive left on the old 

 stand, and in fact only a two frame 

 nucleus left to the removed colony. 

 The results are justifying the plan, 

 for the strengthened colonies ar3 

 gathering honey very fast and have 

 to have brood I'aised every len days 

 to keep them from swarming, while 

 the removed colonies are building up 

 well, and in some cases the process 

 has been repeated, two of the re- 



moved colonies having increased to a 

 point where they have been joined to 

 one strong colony, the weaker being 

 reduced to a two-frame nucleus and 

 removed to a new stand. 



The picture shows two units of 

 these nucleus hives at the end of the 

 yard. I 



Manitoba. ' 



(Louis Scholl, of Texas, places his 

 bees in groups of five, but thij is just 

 as good. We usually place our colo- 

 nies in rows, but they are in woods 

 or orchards, where the trees and 

 shrubs establish great differences in 

 the flight, as bees select certain open- 

 ings among the trees. When they 

 come home through those openings 

 they have only a very limited num- 

 ber of colonies to choose from, and if 

 there are small plants or shrubs about 

 the hives a very positive difference 

 between them is at once noticed by 

 the bees. It is important. — P,ditor.,i 



Sanders hives in groups. 



FREIGHT LOSSES 



I wish to say a word concerning 

 waste on railroads, caused by careless 

 handling by railroad men and other 

 causes spoken of by Mr. J. D. Shields 

 in the August number, 1921, page 

 320, of the American Bee Journal. 

 The trouble is not all with the rail- 

 roads, although the men they employ 

 are sometimes careless. The loss by 

 breakage is very often caused by the 

 goods poorly crated, or poorly packed, 

 from the desire of the packer to save 

 material. 



I am a house builder by trade and 

 do some cabinet work and am often 

 called on to do crating and packing 

 for people who are about to move to 

 other localities, and to repair furni- 

 ture broken in shipment. I have a 

 case in my mind of a man who moved 

 from Pittsburgh, Pa., to Canfield, 

 Ohio. Canfield is located about half 

 way between Pittsburgh and Cleve- 

 land. This was not a very long dis- 

 tance to move, but the goods came 

 badly broken. The furniture and 

 dishes were broken. This man then 

 moved to Cleveland. I crated and 

 packed his goods and went \;ith the 

 teamster and helped pack them in the 

 railroad car. Here is where a great 

 deal of the trouble and waste comes in. 

 It is the carelessness of the team- 

 sters or draymen ; they place the 

 goods in the car without any regard to 

 order, so that the car will not be 

 full. The railroad crew does not 

 take time to pile anything out of the 

 way, but throw in freight, oftentimes 

 heavy, on top of the goods. Result: 

 broken freight. 



In the case of this man moving to 

 Cleveland from Canfield, we packed 

 the goods on one end of the car; 

 packed the goods that were heavy in 

 the bottom, with light goods on top, 

 as high as we could. After the goods 

 arrived in Cleveland the man wrote 

 to me saying nothing was broken. 



Another time I packed p. lot of 

 goods that went to Washington, D. C, 

 and went through without breakage. 



1 have sent extracted hjney oy 

 parcel post a number of times to 

 Pittsburgh, and never had any trou- 

 ble. 



Another thing will help to save 



