THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



249 



To do a good job, the foundation 

 must be set in a very warm room and 

 warmed to that point in which it 

 loses all sense of hardness to the 

 touch, but has not yet become ten- 

 der. It can be best and most com- 

 fortably done in the bright sunshine, 

 and with a little experience is evenly 

 and quickly done with a Parker fast- 

 ener made to just fit the inside of 

 the section, so as to fasten a whole 

 end at one stroke. This must be 

 done, as any after-tinkering with it 

 will spoil the work, even if done 

 with the greatest care. This method 

 has, the past season, with me, pro- 

 duced ninety per cent of my honey, 

 well-filled down and well-filled out 

 at the corners of the sections, so that 

 where separators were used it would 

 be hard to tell by the comb which was 

 top or bottom. 



Custer, III., Oct. g, 1886. 



MY REPORT. 



The honey crop here has been a 

 prolonged and tedious one, and the 

 honey seemingly gathered with a 

 great amount of labor to both bees and 

 keeper. All in all, I have obtained 

 a very fair crop for this locality, the 

 best I have ever heard of here : 190 

 pounds of comb honey in i-lb. sec- 

 tions, 1,400 pounds of comb and 

 about 300 pounds of extracted, from 

 partially filled sections, etc. Have 

 increased my bees from 17 to 54, 

 and all are in fair to good condition 

 for winter. 



Custer, III. 



For the American ApicuUurist. 



SHIPPING BEES A LONG 

 DISTANCE. 



E. R. Hakuy. 



The information which you de- 

 sire relative to the result of the 

 shipment of my bees, I will endeavor 

 to give in as few words as possible, 



as I much prefer the work of the 

 apiary to that of a contributor. That 

 your readers may know the facts of 

 the case I will say on the start that 

 they were shipped from New Smyrna, 

 Fla., to Jacksonville, via schooner ; 

 thence to Charleston by steamer and 

 there transferred to New York by 

 steamer ; arriving in New York, they 

 were transferred again on board a 

 Lake Champlain canal boat to Lan- 

 singburgh, N. Y., the whole distance 

 being some 1,275 iiiiles and occupy- 

 ing thirteen and one-half days en 

 route. Of the 49 colonies shipped, 

 48 arrived in safety with their queens 

 a:nd an average of 65 per cent of the 

 bees shipped; the losses being as 

 follows : out of 22, lost 50 per cent ; 

 of 8, lost 40 per cent; and of 18, 

 lost 25 per cent. My greatest losses 

 were with the strongest colonies, 

 having no room allowed them to ex- 

 ercise ; while others equally strong, 

 with room to fly, lost comparatively 

 few bees. 



My smallest losses were among the 

 black bees and those which showed 

 but little trace of Italian blood; 

 other conditions were the same. It 

 will be noted that in my averages I 

 do not consider the one whose bees 

 are all gone ; the reason for this is 

 tliat they starved and therefore have 

 no bearing on the matter of ship- 

 ment. At the time of shipment 

 (May 15) they were of course con- 

 siderably stronger than ours here, and 

 even after arrival were stronger in 

 numbers than any in this section ; 

 but as there was not a vestige of 

 brood in any hive they were behind 

 at the end of twenty-one days. 



My method of preparation was 

 this : to first see that they had the 

 necessary amount of honey stores ; 

 then to place in each hive a comb 

 filled with water, after which the 

 cover was removed and the whole 

 top of the hive covered with wire 

 cloth ; over this cloth was nailed 

 strips of |-board, and the cover in- 

 verted and nailed to these strips to 



