264 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



say that you put her through with 

 your own hands ; and as you easily 

 did so, you think it sufficient evidence 

 that she was not fertile. ^Vell, now 

 my friend, just take one of those 

 "large" black queens, dead or alive 

 and see if you cannot force her 

 through the same perforation in the 

 metal that you did the dead queen. 

 You also say that you commenced 

 to keep bees only this year. When 

 you have had more experience in 

 bee matters, you will know that 

 queens of any race when sent by 

 mail are considerably smaller after 

 being in the cages twelve hours, and 

 a queen that has been dead one clay 

 is quite small, and dried up. 



A good many customers on receipt 

 of queens have said : "the queen 

 came to hand all right, but is smaller 

 than I expected." These same par- 

 ties would write again after the queen 

 had commenced to lay and say : 

 "the queen is a beauty and very 

 large." Now, friends, when you get 

 a queen that seems small, please do 

 not get in a passion and blow us up. 

 Wait and see what the queen is, and 

 give her a chance to develop ; then 

 if not satisfactory, no fault will be 

 found if you express yourself in a 

 gentlemanly and business-hke man- 

 ner. 



If any person receives a queen 

 from this office that he has any rea- 

 son to think has not been fertilized 

 let them forward all such to Prof. 

 Cook, and if he says they are unfer- 

 tile we will pay $25 for each queen. 

 If they are fertile all that is asked of 

 you is that you will say nothing more 

 about it. 



There were 285 nucleus hives in 

 full operation in our queen apiary, 

 and 200 nursery cages. We have 

 sent out no unfertile queens by 

 mistake or otherwise. I wish all our 

 customers could visit our apiaries 

 and select queens for themselves.] 



Mr. E. R. Hai'dy has given on an- 

 other page his experience in shipping 



bees a long distance. It is evident 

 that his colonies suffered heavy losses 

 for several reasons. The fact that he 

 nailed wire cloth over the entrance 

 is one reason why so many bees 

 died, and was not the proper thing 

 to do. The entrance ought not to 

 have been covered at all, and then 

 two or three one-inch holes should 

 have been made several inclies above 

 the regular entrance for ventilation 

 and for the bees to pass out in case 

 the usual entrance became closed by 

 dead bees. The entrance should 

 have been covered with a screen, the 

 same as described in the Beekeepers' 

 Handy Book, as this would have 

 given plenty of room for the bees to 

 come out for air, and at the same 

 time this arrangement furnishes abun- 

 dant ventilation. Another cause of 

 loss is the fact that more room was 

 not given over the combs. An ex- 

 tra chamber, not less than four 

 inches high, should have been placed 

 over the combs, as this would have 

 allowed plenty of room for the bees 

 to have clustered as when the combs 

 are full of sealed brood, it is very 

 hot in the hive, and the bees must 

 have room to flee to and cluster. 



If a large number of colonies of 

 bees are to be shipped a long dis- 

 tance when the combs are full of 

 brood in all stages, some one should 

 attend them and furnish each hive 

 with one pint of water each day. 



The proper way to prepare a hive 

 of bees to go a long distance is this : 

 Make a box that will be two inches 

 deeper under the frame and four 

 inches of space over the frames. Se- 

 cure the frames at the bottom by a 

 piece of wood having notches in it 

 for the frames to rest on, and if any 

 of the combs do not quite reach the 

 bottom-bar, place strips of wood 

 about one-half inch thick ' between 

 the bottom of the comb and bottom- 

 bar, and they will stand pretty 

 rough handling before the combs 

 will break. Cover the entire top of 

 the hive with wire-cloth, and protect 



