326 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



for the alternate changes in temperature 

 would be likely in time to cause a leak. 

 With proper care, the galvanized metal 

 ought to last a number of seasons. 



A NEW STYLE OF COMBLESS PACKAGE FOR 

 SHIPPING BEES. 



Since our experiment with the Achord 

 eombless package as recorded on page 89, 

 Nov. 1, we have been doing considerable 

 further experimenting with a view of find- 

 ing a more compact cage that could be more 

 cheaply constructed than the one sent us by 

 Mr. Achord and that would take a little 

 less room as well. The cleats extending out 

 beyond the sides of the cage are not espe- 

 cially liked by the express companies. 



Our Mr. Arlie Pritchard has suggested 

 the construction shown in the accompany- 

 ing illustration. Notice that the ends of 

 the cage are triangular, and that there is 

 no vertical surface. It is impossible to 

 crowd the cage so tightly to the Wall as to 

 shut off the ventilation, hence no project- 

 ing cleats are needed. This construction is 

 light and strong, and it furnishes far more 

 room for the bees than the old-style cages. 



One extensive shipper to whom we sent 

 one of the cages wrote that it looked like 

 the best thing out ; but he thought the cross- 

 sticks should be arranged a little nearer the 

 center to give more space between them and 

 the wire clotli. 



A BEGINNER'S EXPERIENCE IN MANITOBA 



BY MRS. FLORENCE WESTGATE 



During tlie winter of 1914, owing to 

 poor stores and too much heat and smoke 

 in the cellar, out of sixteen colonies put in 

 I took out only two which were of any use. 



Seeing bees advertised in pound packages 

 I ordered a pound from the South just for 

 an experiment. They came the first of 

 May, in the very best condition, with only 

 about one dozen dead bees. I put them on 

 two drawn combs filled partly with sugar 

 syrup. They were beautiful bees. The 

 weather was very cold, so I covered them 

 with quilts and stuffed a feather pillow in 

 the open space at the side of the hive and 

 left them alone, except to visit them and sit 

 and watch them hustle. They were the 

 greatest little workers — out finst in the 

 morning and in last at night. 



I determined to have more of them, and 

 wired for five more packages which arrived 



May 26 in even better condition than the 

 others — not a spoonful of dead bees. How 

 proud I was of them ! 



I followed the directions as nearly as 

 possible, giving them drawn combs of 

 sugar syrup. I tried putting a tomato-can 

 of syrup inverted, on a saucer in the open 

 space at the side of the hive, and it must 

 have worked all riglit from the way those 

 little duffers worked and built up. 



I shook one of my old colonies June 17, 

 and gave frames of brood to the new ones. 

 They had their hives full of brood and bees 

 in the middle of July. On the 19th the first 

 one ca.st a fine swarm, and from then on I 

 had a swarm every day until all but one of 

 the new colonies had swarmed. 



The bees I received May 1 filled two su- 

 pers of sections and one half-depth super 

 of extracted. I got 20 cts. per section and 



A good retreat from the summer's heat — in Manitoba. 



