GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



all new labels should be printed with the 

 guarantee eliminated from now on to make 

 sure that there will be none left by May of 

 next vear. 



ledma ; 



The second car of bees ari'ived here in 

 splendid condition, notwithstanding it has 

 been very hot for a couple of days back, 

 and that at the hour of arrival the mercury 

 hovered close to 90 in the shade. To make 

 matters still worse, the honey-house door 

 had been left open on the Sunday previous, 

 and the bees, already in the yard, found it 

 very convenient to help themselves to honey 

 in the combs. They were, indeed, doing a 

 land-ofifice business when they were discov- 

 ered. The next day was the day when tlie 

 bees were to arrive, and we were exceeding- 

 ly apprehensive as to what the result would 

 be when the car should be unloaded, espe- 

 cially if there were any melted or broken- 

 down combs. As the mercury remained 

 high, and the hour for the arrival of the 

 bees drew near, we became still more appre- 

 hensive. In the mean time robbers had 

 pounced on some weak nuclei; and, besides 

 this, there was the characteristic hum of 

 robbing that is any thing but pleasant to 

 the beekeeper. 



A platform had been built up at one 

 corner of the home yard, close to a siding 

 wliere the bees were to be unloaded. All 

 hands had been notified to be ready. The 

 automobile truck and our big team were to 

 be on hand in due time. The weather be- 

 came hotter and more sultry, and the rob- 

 bers were as mean as we had ever known 

 them in Medina. 



In this connection perha];s we ought to 

 say that we always particularly stipulate, 

 when we hire men for the beeyards. that 

 they be careful to guard against robbing; 

 for a boy or man who allows robbing to get 

 started spoils his chance of getting an in- 

 crease in wages, even if he does not lose bis 

 job altogether. Well, when one of our edi- 

 torial force hived a swarm on Sunday, and 

 left the door of the honey-house open, the 

 joke was on us. We told the boys it was 

 a good thing that they had the laugh on us. 



Soon Ave heard the toot of the approach- 

 ing locomotive, and our heart sank within 

 us. Our Mr. Calvert suggested, " Why not 

 unload the bees in the basement of the big 

 warehouse"? " Capital idea! Why didn't v/e 

 think of it before? We immediately got in 

 touch with our local railroad agent over the 

 phone. We told liim we wanted that cai' 



switched down to the warehouse. The be- 

 fore-mentioned basement is cool, and even 

 on the hottest days it maintains a tempera- 

 ture not above 65. Soon the train came 

 thundering in. The car was put in place, 

 and then a gang of men began work, for 

 not a minute was to be lost. In the space 

 of an hour we had the car unloaded in a 

 cool basement, secure from robbers, and 

 two loads of bees on the way to the out- 

 yards. A third load was sent off before 

 dark; and by nightfall we had nearly 100 

 colonies located. 



The basement is so nice and cool that the 

 bees at this writing, 8 A. M.^ May 26, are 

 perfectly quiet, and the automobile truck is 

 moving the bees to the outyard, 30 colonies 

 at a time. We shall have all the bees placed 

 by noon. 



The weather was so extremely warm on 

 this trip that our Mr. Jack Deyell actually 

 gave the bees five barrels of water, and not 

 a colony has been lost so far, and the aver- 

 age bottom screen does not have a hundred 

 bees on it — sometimes not more than a doz- 

 en. The most that any has had is a double 

 handful from two or three colonies. Where 

 such loss occurred at all, it was evident 

 theie were too many bees to the hive. 



We feel now that the next two cars can 

 not come through under worse conditions. 

 There is not a single comb, so far as we 

 know, that w^as broken down on this trip. 

 We assume we shall be able to do still better 

 on the next two carloads that are yet to 

 come, for conditions can scarcely be worse. 

 The last two started to-day, and will arrive 

 in Medina, probably, on the first of June. 



The secret of moving bees successfully is 

 in having strong staging so as to provide 

 jtlenty of air space at the top and bottom 

 screens of the hive, not too many bees to the 

 Inye, and plenty of water en route. Our 

 first carload of bees came when the weather 

 was cool, and recjuired only two barrels of 

 water. The second car came when the 

 weather was extremely warm, and took five 

 barrels of wafer. 



Oiir Cover Picture 



Our cover picture for this issue, as men- 

 tioned on page 413, shows a boatload of 

 three-frame nuclei on the way from Rand- 

 let t's Landing, Fla., where most of our bees 

 were located, to the nucleus yard five miles 

 above. Before moving the bees north we 

 formed 500 nuclei, 50 at a time, and took 

 them five miles up the river, from which 

 point they were to be picked up by the big 

 boat on tlie way to Bainbridge when the 



