"44 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



colony for this number, as the nuclei will 

 be so small. 



When Dr. Phillips visited Swarthmore he 

 found that sometimes, when he caged a 

 laying queen out of the little nuclei, he put 

 all the bees in the mailing- cage. That 

 seemed incredible at the time; but we have 

 done the same thing right here in Medina. 



This matter is of considerable impor- 

 tance, because there will be no reason now 

 why the honey-producer can not requeen at 

 least once in two years, and oftener if he 

 thinks there is any advantage in it, at a 

 great saving of time and nuclei. 



The great majority of the best producers 

 requeen once in two years, and some go 

 even so far as to think it best to requeen 

 every year, because there will be less 

 swarming when a colony has a young 

 queen and less drone brood. 



HOW TO SHIP BEES. 



At different times we have had requests 

 for an article on how to ship bees. As we 

 have had a large experience we have thought 

 best to describe the method we use. 



The very heavy winter losses made an ex- 

 ceptionally heavy demand for bees in nu- 

 cleus and colony form this past spring and 

 early summer. While we have been uni- 

 formly successful, yet we have been experi- 

 menting and testing various forms of ship- 

 ping-boxes, until we now have something 

 that stands the test for all seasons of the 

 year for long travel, and which on arrival 

 delivers the bees fresh and in good order. 

 Of all the hundreds of nuclei we have 

 shipped this season, I do not think there 

 has been a single complaint of bees arriving 

 in bad order. 



The illustration opposite gives almost at a 

 glance our method of shipping three-frame 

 nuclei, the one, two, and four frame being 

 made exactly in the same way, only narrow- 

 er or wider as the case may be. The box 

 for lightness is made of well- seasoned bass- 

 wood, only fV thick for the sides and ^/i for 

 the ends. Galvanized wire cloth is nailed 

 under the bottom; and that the edges may 

 not fray out or become loose, narrow strips 

 are nailed along the sides as shown. The 

 galvanized cloth is much stronger, and is, 

 therefore, used for the bottom. To raise 

 this up so as to provide ventilation, two 

 cleats are nailed across the two ends. For 

 the coverwehave common wire cloth folded to 

 the proper width, but secured to thin board, 

 of the kind shown detached at the top and 

 bottom of the engraving. The end of the 

 wire cloth is nailed on to the cleats shown 

 at the upper right-hand corner, secured to 

 square blocks supporting a thin board iV of 

 an inch thick. When this whole cover is 

 set down on to the nucleus, it covers the 

 space left open at the ends of the frames; 

 and when the end-blocks are nailed in 

 place we have a convenient hold whereby 

 the box can be lifted and carried about. 

 The thin board is nailed over the top, not 

 only to protect the wire cloth beneath from 



the corners of boxes or any sharp projec- 

 tion, but in order to shade it from the hot 

 sun. In spite of printed requests to the con- 

 trary, expressmen will leave the bees out 

 in the hot sun; and this of itself may kill 

 the bees or put them in poor condition on 

 arrival. Hoffman frames ordinarily do not 

 need to be secured; but as an additional 

 precaution for rough handling we have cleats 

 grooved to come down over the ends of the 

 top-bars, as shown in the illustration. 

 These are nailed in place. Similar cleats, 

 nailed on the inside of the ends, hold the 

 end bars securely. 



On the side of the box are pasted some 

 neatly printed directions telling all about 

 stimulative feeding to make a strong colony 

 of the nucleus. Indeed, it gives full direc- 

 tions how to make increase so that almost 

 any beginner with a little lot of bees like 

 this can go ahead understandingly and 

 meet with success. 



In selecting our combs we take those that 

 are just as light in stores as possible — no 

 more than enough to carry the bees through 

 safely to their destination ; for even at a 

 rate and a half, the expressage may be 

 considerably more than the value of the 

 bees. Therefore we have the box made of 

 bass wood, which for its weight is about as 

 strong and tough as any wood we know of. 

 Then it is cut down to only ,\- inch in thick- 

 ness, so that three-frame boxes weigh only 

 3 lbs. With three light combs of brood 

 covered with bees the whole thing weighs 

 12 lbs. 



I said that we shipped bees in full-sized 

 hives. For this purpose we take brand- 

 new hives, newly painted; secure the bottom- 

 bar to the hive with double-pointed staples. 



