594 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sending Queens by Mail or Express. 



On the 25th ult. we received from 

 Mr. I. R. Good, Nappanee, Ind., a 

 cage containing 10 worker bees, accom- 

 panied with the following explana- 

 tion : " I wish to call your attention 

 to the cage I use, and the food placed 

 in it for the bees and queen. I do 

 not lose one queen out of 100, sent 

 in these cages, with this kind of food. 

 If you wish to try the shipping quali- 

 ties of the cage, mail it to some per- 

 son in Texas, or at any other distant 

 point, and have him return it to you. 

 The bees will stand a journey of two 

 weeks, and be none the worse for wear 

 and tear." 



The cage, with the bees bright and 

 lively, was immediately mailed to Dr. 

 W. R. Howard, Kingston, Texas, 

 where they arrived Aug. 30dIi, and by 

 him remailed to us on the 31st. Dr. 

 Howard wrote us: "The bees ar- 

 rived in good condition to-day — not 

 one dead — all lively, and not in the 

 least restless ; not more than ^ of food 

 consumed ; the food seemed to be in a 

 good, moist condition. With the 

 amount of food, and in their present 

 condition, I should think they were 

 good for a journey of 1,000 miles 

 more." 



The cage reached us the second 

 time on September 4th, with the bees 

 still in good condition, except with one 

 dead and one debilitated ; but the food 

 had become quite dry and powdered, 

 being scattered throughout the apart- 

 ment occupied by the bees. We 

 moistened some granulated sugar with 

 liquid honey and placed it in the food 

 cavity, and on the following day again 

 mailed it to Dr. Howard, where it 

 arrived Sept. 8th. 



The Doctor acknowledged its re- 

 ceipt in the following language : 

 " Bees came to hand yesterday ; 5 

 bees were alive when received, but this 

 morning only 1 remains alive. The 

 feed appears to have been too damp, 

 and daubed the bees somewhat. I 

 vyill send the cage with some bees on 

 a new food I have been experimenting 

 with of late ; will give you formula at 

 some future time if it proves worthy. 

 Please return, if alive, or send to Dr. 

 J. P. H. Brown, Augusta, Ga., with 

 request to forward to me if alive. It 

 is almost too late in the season to ex- 

 periment much with bees in transit 

 except in the South. In the event 

 you send to Dr. Brown, have him 

 write to me, as well as yourself, the 

 condition of the bees on arrival." Dr. 

 Howard's remittance of bees were re- 

 ceived at the Bee Journal office 



Sept. 12th, all alive and apparently in 

 the best condition. 



We are inclined to the opinion, had 

 Mr. Good's experiments been insti- 

 tuted in mid-summer, when the 

 weather was sufficiently warm that the 

 bees could readily clean each other, 

 and be free from chilling while in an 

 exhausted condition, or had the food 

 we gave them been in a less moist 

 condition, the period of survival would 

 have been lengthened from 16 days to 

 perhaps double that length of time — 

 or in other words, that it might be 

 possible to mail queens in these cages, 

 with this article of food, from accessi- 

 ble points in the United States and 

 Canada, to Italy with perfect safety. 



Mr. Good's cage is made from a 

 block Si inches long, 1 inch thick, 

 and ]^ wide, in which are bored two 1 

 inch auger holes, connecting, and f 

 inch deep, which are mortised into 

 one, to serve as an apartment for the 

 bees, at one end ; a second hole is 

 bored at the other end of the block, 

 disconnected from the bees, except by 

 a ^ inch hole, for the bees to pass 

 through to the feed, which is placed 

 in the 1 inch cavity. Apiece of wire- 

 cloth covers the whole cage, and over 

 this is tacked a thin piece of wood, 

 with a hole cut in, to furnish air to 

 the bees. A ^ inch hole is also bored 

 in the side of the cage, through 

 which the queen and workers arc put 

 inside, and this also is covered with 

 wire-cloth, to furnish air, in case the 

 top of the cage should become covered 

 while in the mail pouch. 



For food, Mr. Good uses granulated 



siigar, which is prepared by putting 

 in plenty of liquid extracted honey, 

 and after allowing it to stand a few 

 days, pouring it into a dish or box 

 having a wire-cloth bottom, which al- 

 lows the excess of honey to drain out. 

 Here is a most powerful illustration 

 of the efficacy of pure food for con- 

 sumption in long confinement, and the 

 combination of the cane sugar with 

 the liquid of the pure honey seems to 

 meet all the natural requirements of 

 the bees. There is a hallowed proverb 

 which reads, " He builded better than 

 he knew." Can it not be possible 

 that Mr. Good has exemplified it in 

 his experiments for a transit-food, by 

 discovering and proving the solution 

 of the great wintering problem. Cer- 

 tainly, the results possible are worthy 

 of the most diligent experiments and 

 observation. Should it prove success- 

 ful', the response from thousands of 

 bee-keepers would resound through- 

 out America — "Good ! Good ! Good !'' 



The Honey Crop and the Market. 



Mr. J. M. McCaul, with Thurber & 

 Co., of New Yorlc, gives the following- 

 review of tlie lioney crop for 1882, in 

 a recent number of the Bee-Keepers'' 



Exchange: 



The outlook for the honey crop of 

 1882 is but little better than that of 

 1881. 



After returning from the Golden 

 State, and placing California's crop of 

 honey in 1878 at 720,000 pounds, about 

 a quarter crop may lie looked for there 

 this season, some 180,000 lbs. of this 

 amount (aliout 00 tons), according to 

 the best available reports, will consti- 

 tute the excess of lioney produced in 

 1882 over that in the previous year. 

 New York state, a leading lioney pro- 

 ducing center, will run short of its 

 general good average, but this defi- 

 ciency will be offset by gains in Illi- 

 nois, Michigan and other western 

 states, which produced less than usual 

 in 1881. California promises a quarter 

 crop this year, against a total failure 

 in 1881. This will constitute the sur- 

 plus over the quantity of honey mar- 

 keted in 1881. The heavy lioney year 

 in California was 1878, the crop has 

 not equalled the output of the bee 

 since that date. The taking up of 

 alternate sections of land for grazing 

 and allowing sheep to range across the 

 intermediate plots, tend to destroy the 

 blossoms on which the industrious 

 bee has depended. A tire swept across 

 a county or two in Southern California 

 two years ago, and all verdure was 

 destroyed, this discouraged the bee- 

 keepers, as well as the bees. Although 

 by next season the present prospect is- 

 that honey blossoms will be fairly 

 plenty once more. This explains the 

 laihiie of the honey crop in that state 

 last year. But the probability of re- 

 currences of tires, together with the 

 grazing trouble, point to the steady 

 reduction of the honey product in 

 California from now on, unless meas- 

 ures are taken to cultivate bee food 

 in the canyons and elsewhere, which 

 plan is meeting with serious consid- 

 eration with California bee-keepers. 



Mr. McCaul's estimate is quite up 

 to, or a little over the amount for 

 California, but for the country at 

 large he is, perhaps, a little under. 

 The Exchange intimates, editorially, 

 that Messrs. Tluirber & Co. may be 

 over-estimating the crop " in order to- 

 bear down the prices," as they are 

 this season buying as dealers, instead 

 of selling on commission as last year. 

 We do not believe, however, that the 

 estimate is excessive, but, rather, 

 under the actual yield, and while we 

 express this opinion candidly we do 

 so with an honest conviction of its 

 truth, and accompanied with the ad- 

 vice to producers that honey is worth 

 as much and should realize as high 

 figures, or higher, than last year, for 

 several reasons, first of which is that 



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