March, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



141 



aiitoed against loss, and the buyer will be 

 protected in his part of the contract. 



We ourselves have been dealing with a 

 breeder, who, I believe, is doing business in 

 a fair way. He requires only 10 per cent of 

 the order down, with the remainder to be 

 paid at time of delivery. This firm, further- 

 more, guarantees delivery and a refund when 

 deliveries are late. Sooner or later all 

 breeders will be compelled to follow a simi- 

 lar jdan or do less business. 



Package bees appeal to me as a means of 

 quick restocking in sections where the num- 

 ber of colonies has decreased as they have 

 in Wisconsin. There is a big demand in 

 Wisconsin with very few colonies for sale. 

 For the next few years, then, we must de- 

 pend on package bees to fill the gaps. Some 

 one has remarked that restocking can easily 

 be done thru increase. Yes, but every colo- 

 ny of bees is being used to gather honey, 

 and very few beekeepers want to split even 

 a few of their colonies. It also happens for 

 one reason or another that some beekeeper 

 will lose 50 to 75 per cent of his yard by 

 bad winter stores. Several thousand colo- 

 nies were lost during the winter of 1918- 

 1919 from this cause, and at least two bee- 

 keepers with over 150 colonies each are go- 

 ing to lose all of their bees this winter. With 

 the present price of honey these men cannot 

 afford to wait four or five years to restock 

 their yards by ordinary methods of increase, 

 and package bees are a proper investment. 

 The average crop secured by one of these 

 men and sold at 20 cents per pound will 

 more than pay for the required number of 

 packages next season. 



We are continually asked for information 

 on the value of package bees; so we deter- 

 mined to run a test on 25 colonies. We 

 started in by buying a complete equipment 

 of hives, frames, foundation, etc., for 30 

 colonies. An order was placed with one of 

 our Southern breeders for 25 two-pound 

 packages with queens, and a request made 

 that the bees reach Madison promptly on 

 May 1, if possible. Twelve of the packages 

 were ordered shipped by parcel post and 

 thirteen by express. 



The parcel-post shipment arrived in splen- 

 did condition on May 1 and on May 2 were 

 put in hives with full sheets of foundation. 

 (The feed in this set of cages was soft 

 candy.) 



The express shipment arrived May 7, and 

 the bees were at once put in hives with 

 foundation. This lot arrived in poor condi- 

 tion, and in six packages at least half the 

 bees were dead. (Liquid feed only accom- 

 panied the bees.) Sugar syrup made of 

 equal parts of water and sugar was given 

 each colony with Alexander feeders. A to- 

 tal of 100 pounds of sugar was used for the 

 entire 25 colonies. Every colony of the 

 first shipment produced a surplus, and two 

 of them produced three full supers of honey 

 or slightly better than 150 pounds per colo- 

 ny. Of this lot i'wo swannt'd in .Tii'i(\ 



As was to be expected the second lot made 



a very poor showing, seven of the colonies 

 making no surplus. The others varied from 

 a few pounds up to 150 pounds, the surplus 

 jH-oduced by one single colony in this lot. 

 No other colony of this lot reached more 

 than 75 pounds surplus (estimated). In ad- 

 dition to our other troubles, six of these 

 colonies contracted American foul brood by 

 July 1 and had to be treated. One hundred 

 extracting combs were bought and used but 

 too late to be of much help. 



Perhaps this test is an average one, for 

 we had our share of trials and tribulations, 

 all of which cannot be recorded here. Even 

 had it been worse, the investment would 

 have been profitable. It could have been 

 better, and under other circumstances the 

 surplus should not have been less than 2,000 

 pounds. 



The location of the yard was in the edge 

 of town, but the bees had to fly across a 

 lake so that the nearest large supply of nec- 

 tar was not less than one and one-half miles. 

 The total cost and proceeds of the venture 

 are given so that the reader may form his 

 own opinion of the experiment. 



ACCOUKT OF H. F. WILSON & S. B. FRACKER, 

 BEE-YARD, 1919. 



Expenses. 

 May 1 10 hives complete without foun- 

 dation $ 20 . 00 



40 pounds of foundation. 300 



sheets 30.00 



Supplies (hive^, supers, wa.x 



etc.) ." 165.07 



25 2-pound packages of bees. . . . 143.06 



1 sack susar for feeding bees. . . 10.80 



May 7 1 tele^i'am for queens .90 



.Tune 25 Telephonei call .45 



.Tulv 2 96 combs 24.96 



.July 7 Wedges 4 . 02 



E.xpress on combs 1.52 



Can for uncapping-knife .90 



FTinnel 1 . 00 



Aug. 15 1 dozen honey cans 9.40 



Freight on cans .52 



Vo bundle of laths .25 



2 yards of cheese-cloth .50 



Aug. 17 2 yards of cheese-cloth (fine)... .60 



Sept. 26 Freight on supplies 2.76 



Oct. 1 Dravagei 1.00 



2 sacks of sugar at .$11.00 22.00 



Total cost of apiary to date $439.71 

 Receipts. 

 Honey taken from hives. . . .1,066 pounds 

 Money reeeived to date for honey sold. . . . $235.39 

 Honey on hand 190 pounds 



iladison. Wis. 



The Two-pound Package. 



From communications I have received 

 since making public, in a previous issue of 

 this .Journal, my experience with ' ' package 

 bees, " it is evident that the subject is still 

 being carefully studied, and man}' are con- 

 templating a first venture. 



The questions of prime import with these 

 people arc mainly these: When and from 

 whom to order, what price one should be 

 willing to pay, and what should be the man- 

 ner of handling. 



At the Illinois State Beekeepers' meeting 

 last winter President Dr. A. C. Baxter stat- 

 ed: "In 1918 it was impossible to buv any 

 packages. I tried and .could not find anv 

 beekeeper in the United States that could 



