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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



A DISASTROUS EXPERIENCE IN MOVING A CAM OF BEES 



■f Bad Luick 



BY H. F. STRANG 



I have noticed accounts of shipments of 

 carloads of bees where everything went off 

 like clockwork; for example, Holtermann's 

 shipment from Libert}-, Mo., to Canada ; 

 also the Root Company's shipments from 

 Florida to Ohio, and Abler 's shipments 

 from his home at West Bend, Wis., to Lou- 

 isiana. In view of these reports of success 

 I thought perhaps a report of an unsuccess- 

 ful shipment by rail, where everything went 

 wrong from start to finish, might interest 

 the reader. 



I have kept from one to 100 colonies of 

 bees for the past 30 years; but owing to 

 poor health for a good many years I haven't 

 engaged extensively in the woi'k. 



one of the Baldensperj 

 Alps in France. 



I had been advised by numerous doctoi's 

 to try the mountainous section of the South ; 

 and as I had spent some time in southwest 

 Missouri and Arkansas when I was a young 

 man, I naturally turned that way. 



Li Augiist, 1911, I left my home in Mich- 

 igan for a trijD in the south; and finally, 

 after looking over a lot of territory, I de- 

 cided to locate iri the southwest part of 

 Missouri a little way from the Arkansas 

 lii:e on Flat Creek, in the Ozark Mountains. 

 I went home and got ready ; but owing to 

 bad weather I couldn't get ready to start 

 before Nov. 15. When all was ready I had 

 to wait nearly a week, owing to sickness. 

 Finally I got the bees loaded, and left our 

 station on the Pere 

 Marquette Railroad 

 about 42 miles from 

 Grand Junction on 

 Nov. 21 at 2:30 p.m. 

 We had to be pulled to 

 Greenville by the local, 

 as where I loaded was 

 just a branch. 



We reached Green- 

 ville at 4:30 p. m., and 

 were switched on the 

 Y for the through 

 freight to pick us up; 

 but the best-laid plans 

 of men go wrong some- 

 times. The through 

 freight, when it got 

 within about ten miles 

 of Greenville, ran into 

 some kind of an ob- 

 struction on the track, 

 Avrecked the engine, 

 piled part of the train 

 in the ditch, tore up 

 some track, and they 

 told ns it would be ]2 

 hours at least before 

 we could get away 

 from there. Instead 

 of 12 hours, it was 38. 

 Then tliey took us out 

 to a junction on an- 

 other branch, 20 miles 

 east of Grand Rapids, 

 and Ave were there ten 

 hours before we could 

 get away. So it was 

 just .52 hours from the 

 time T left my liome 

 station until we got to 



