272 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mav, It) -21 



sugar without using candy. This is put into 

 a tin can, self -sealing, with only a single 

 liole in the bottom made with a small nail. 

 The bees get this syruj) thru this single 

 opening as fast as they need it. The syrup 

 has the advantage over candy because any- 

 body can make it, and because it supplies 

 both food and water. It is always uniform 

 in that it does not become hard like candy 

 so that the bees starve, nor does it become 

 soft so that it runs and daubs the bees so 

 much that they arrive at their destination 

 a sticky mess. He finds that syrup solves 

 tlie problem of a food for the transportation 

 of bees in package form. 



Caraway's truck and extiiirtiiis-liouse at his liome 

 yard. It will lie notired that the weather is so 

 warm that the hood of the engine is lifted ofl en- 

 tirely. Think of its being hot in Wyoming where 

 the winter ie( ord .shows a temperature of 40 below^ 

 zero ! 



While breeding and shipping bees Mr. 

 Caraway learned also that the majority of 

 honey producers in the northern States buy 

 them in three-pound packages, with a queen 

 caged among the bees — not released. This 

 is the kind of package he had sent to him. 

 The packages were shipped in lots of six to 

 a crate. As will be seen by the illustrations, 

 these containers wore plain wire cages re- 

 inforced at the corners and tops, and braced 

 at the sides. A single cage of bees will not 

 travel as safely as a crate of six. Some- 

 times the crates are made large enough to 

 hold as many as ten or a dozen three-pound 

 cages. 



So much for the "tricks of the trade" at 

 the shipper's end of the journey. Let us 

 now see what Mr. Caraway does at the 

 other end of the route after the bees arrive, 

 for we will not consider that he is a shipper 

 but a receiver of combless bees. He ex- 

 plained that, after he went north, he lost a 

 lot of bees even after they arrived in good 

 order. He released several dozen three- 

 pound packages of bees into hives outdoors, 

 all at one time. The result was he would 

 have a general mixup. The other bees of 

 the yard would get in the game when there 

 would be a general uproar. Mr. Caraway 

 then struck upon this plan w^hich I call 

 Caraway's thousand-doUat trick of the trade, 

 or at least it will be worth a thousand dol- 



lars the first or second season to a beekeeper 

 receiving large consignments of combless 

 bees. Mr. Caraway winters in cellars be- 

 cause of the very low temperature in Wy- 

 oming during the winter — the mercury 

 sometimes going 40 degrees below zero, with 

 very little snow. Along about the first of 

 April the weather warms up, at which time 

 he takes his bees out. When these are on 

 their summer stands, and the cellar is emp- 

 ty, he makes up a set of hives ready to re- 

 ceive his packages of bees — as many hives 

 as there are packages he expects to receive. 

 He puts in each hive a frame or two of pol- 

 len, two combs containing a little honey, 

 and one empty comb. This empty he puts 

 in the center. If the other combs do not 

 contain enough honey he pours syrup from 

 a height into them. The hives thus pre- 

 pared are all placed in the cellar; and when 

 the shipment of bees arrives, if it is at night 

 he puts them in the cellar. Next morning 

 he lifts out his can of syrup from one of 

 the cages, draws out the cage containing 

 the queen, by means of a wire, from the 

 bees and hangs this on the center comb 

 that is empty. He then jars out of the cage 

 perhaps 25 per cent of the bees so that they 

 will surround the queen and keep her warm. 

 He next lays the cage in the empty space in 

 the side of hive not occupied by the combs; 

 for by the plan outlined there will be only 

 five combs for the three pounds of bees. In 

 24 to 36 hours the bees will have deserted 

 the cage and gone to the queen. He now 

 lifts out the cage, slides the frames over, 

 and fills out the remaining space on each 

 side with frames of foundation. In a like 



stuck in the mud : a sample of Mr. Caraway's 

 Wyoming roads; good bee country, but travel very 

 difficult, especially to an outyard location. Me^n 

 are required to take shovels, picks, and general 

 equipment to help thoni out of the mire if needed. 



manner he releases the bees in all of the 

 other hives, after which they are kept in 

 the cellar in perfect darkness for four or 

 five days. This is important, and is the 

 secret of the trick. In the mean time the 

 bees get started in real earnest without mo- 

 lestation, start breeding, and begin to draw 

 out the foundation — in short, settle down to 

 regular housekeeping. At the end of the 



