1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



131 



Question No. 3.— Please describe your method of prepar- 

 ing and shipping the bees, the number of colonies that can be 

 put into a car, and cost of shipping a carload that distance? 

 (Tennessee to Toronto, Ont.) 



Answer. — The shipping-crates consist of two end-pieces 

 10xl2i^x% thick, two sides 12x19 i.lx^g-, the two end-pieces 

 10xl2J^. The frames rest on this, requiring SxlSJisJn' 

 pieces to be nailed outside, closing the ends, and forming a 

 cleat to lift the crate by. It also strengthens the crate. If 

 the frames are of uniform thickness, a lath IxlJ^ inches 

 wide, and 12^8 long, may be laid on the end of the frames, 

 and nailed through each frame into the rabbet. Light wire 

 staples may be used as spacers, or nails driven through the 

 ends and front of the hive may answer. I have had them 

 come safely 1,000 miles farther without any spacers. Wire 

 screens should be made to rest on the top and bottom, and not 

 nailed dead to the crate, so they can be taken off easily and be 

 used again. The crates may be used for surplus supers by 

 ripping off the extra depth at top and bottom. Have an auger 

 hole, IJa or 2 inches, in front and rear; these the bees use 

 while getting ready as flight-holes ; then cover with wire net- 

 ting. They should be two inches from the bottom. Often 

 many bees accumulate on the bottom screen, and it prevents 

 free ventilation. These holes are safety-valves. Have every- 

 thing so arranged that the nailing will be reduced to a mini- 

 mum while the bees are in the crates. That is to say, have 

 no unnecessary nailing, keeping the bees as normal as possi- 

 ble — they will have enough to irritate and wear them out in 

 transit. Two crates can be attached — one on top of the other 

 — by laths, allowing the bottom crate to be two or three inches 

 off the floor, and from four to six inches between the two, 

 nailing a lath up each corner, thus completing a double crate. 

 Thus arranged you can put 200 into a large fruit-car. By 

 three-story crates you can ship 300. Have the frames pointing 

 toward the engine, and stay them with laths across the ear 

 and longitudinally. Get a car with as much ventilation as 

 possible, and be sure the bees have plenty of food. Don't 

 crowd too many bees into a crate. Of course it is bees we 

 want, but a very great mistake may be made by overcrowding. 

 A car may be chartered with an attendant in the neighbor- 

 hood of Memphis, Tenn., to Toronto, for the sum of .$135. 



Question No. 4. — And lastly, will Mr. McArthur, or any 

 Southern reader of the American Bee Journal, please answer 

 whether plenty of bees on good comb and Simplicity frames 

 can be purchased in the latitude of Tennessee, or thereabouts ? 

 Also the range of prices in May. 



Answer. — That depends greatly upon the season and de- 

 mand. Last season it would have been difficult to purchase 

 in Tennessee, but in Louisiana they were plentiful. As to 

 price, that depends upon how you can buy. Prices fluctuate, 

 but they will cost no more than 2-pound or 3-pound lots with 

 queens, if you go direct to the producer, and assist in prepar- 

 ing for shipping. 



What we want in the North is bees to build up our weak 

 colonies, so as to give us surplus from our earliest blossoms, 

 and if our Southern brother bee-keepers would turn their at- 

 tention to the production of bees at as low a figure as possible, 

 there would spring up a great industry in supplying us poor 

 fellows in the North who are ice-bound in the spring. The 

 honey-flow would be over in the South before we would re- 

 quire them, thus enabling the bee-keeper to dispose of his 

 surplus bees at a low figure, saving the trouble and pain it 

 gives in annihilating them. Such undertakings have been 

 successfully carried out. 



Being interested in three of those ventures, it would be 

 needless to say that all proved successful. Each left a lesson 

 as a beacon to prevent disaster and failure in the future. 



Let me here say there is considerable labor connected with 

 this business, and none should attempt such undertaking but 

 those that are experts in the business. I take no credit my- 

 self for the last consignment, its condition when it arrived 

 being all that could be desired — not a single comb being 

 broken. Honor to whom honor is due. The consignor and 

 W. O. Leach, who accompanied them to their destination, 

 have the credit, and well deserve it. In the meantime nego- 

 tiations have been carried on regarding a consignment for 

 next May. 



Before concluding it may be profitable to some to men- 

 tion a little incident that occurred when the bees were liber- 

 ated, which taxed my ingenuity to its utmost. The day being 

 bright and warm when given their liberty, many swarms is- 

 sued — there might have been 20. Pandemonium reigned. 

 They formed one mammoth cluster ; many flying that had not 

 located their hives, joined in the grand procession, which had 

 already reached enormous proportions — about 10 feet in 

 length by about 4 feet through at the upper end, tapering to 

 the ground, with quite a train on the grass. Being as much 



excited as the bees, I neglected to have its photograph taken. 

 This little episode can be better imagined than described. In- 

 vestigation showed the cause to be the hatching out of young 

 queens on the way. Therefore care has to be exercised in 

 giving them their liberty, either by putting them into the cel- 

 lar and cooling them off, or liberating them in small numbers 

 at a time, or in the cool of the evening. It was a late hour 

 before they were all divided up and gotten into hives. I hope 

 never to see a repetition of the same. 



If one bee-keeper cannot see his way clear to get a car- 

 load of bees, then say 5 or 10 may in one locality mutually 

 agree to do so. It certainly is much cheaper and better than 

 buying bees by the pound. 



In advocating this scheme, it only applies to localities 

 where there is an early honey-flow and not sufficient bees of 

 proper age to gather the surplus. Localities where bee-keep- 

 ers depend upon basswood and buckwheat for their crop, they 

 will have no trouble in having their bees in proper condition 

 at the proper time. Toronto, Ont. 



An Explanation of the " Rusty Honey." 



BY DOUGLAS D. HAMMOND. 



On page 54, Dr. Miller asks some of the readers to answer 

 the question concerning the " rusty " combs, referred to in 

 "Questions and Answers." 



Well, the second year I was in the bee-business at this 

 place I increased from 11 colonies, spring count, to 26. I got 

 no spring flow to amount to anything, and many were the 

 jokes at my expense as to bee-culture, and still in my locality 

 it is looked upon as a small affair, because they are not posted. 

 But when Aug. 20 came, my bees were changing the pro- 

 gramme and working on "blue vervain," as several hundred 

 acres were in a radius of one mile from my bees. Over 2,000 

 pounds of comb-honey was the result from that and heart's- 

 ease. Blue vervain honey is almost equal to white clover 

 for flavor and color. If we have fairly moist seasons, about 

 every third year we get a good flow from it. 



Now, then, to come to the point: "The rusty combs " 

 are from the stain of a pollen from one species of aster, com- 

 monly called "frost flower " in Iowa, as it blooms just after 

 the first frost, as a usual thing. They are generally purple 

 with a yellow center, the plant growing about two feet high, 

 and, like the pumpkin or squash family, they yield enormous 

 qualities of pollen, or so much that as the bee leaves the 

 pumpkin vine all covered, so she does from the "aster," men- 

 tioned above, and accordingly it covers the comb with the 

 rusty appearance. The bloom is about the size of " batchelor's 

 button." I don't mean the ten-penny wire nail mentioned by 

 E. H. Sturtevant, as a " batchelor button ;" but a real bloom, 

 and if ever nature gave us a beautiful bouquet all In one 

 plant, surely this was among the number. I know, Mr. S., for 

 its many a one I've given the girls when the autumn leaves 

 were turning. You were justified, Mr. S., in getting angry at 

 the postmaster for withholding any thing as interesting as 

 the American Bee Journal. What do they suppose us old 

 " baches " will do — sit down and pine our life away? Not 

 much ! calico fever is catching; we will just work and wait. 



Now, Dr. Miller, I've answered your puzzle. I only wish 

 I should as seldom get puzzled as you do. I'm in about the 

 samo latitude you are, and from 150 colonies I got about 

 1,500 pounds of extracted honey from heart" s-ease. That 

 beats your average of — yes, just a taste. Was it "licking 

 good?" and did you want more? Malone, Iowa. 



Some Notes and Kinks From California. 



BY C. W. DAYTON. 



HuMMiNG-BiRDS AND Bees. — I have a small colony of bees 

 in my study window. These are all the bees near. Several 

 times a day humming-birds notice the flying of the bees and 

 alight on the edge of the alighting-board of the hive. They 

 watch the bees going and returning but do not molest them. 



Gathering Rapidly. — Day before yesterday (Jan. 13) 

 the bees were gathering pollen and honey so rapidly as to 

 tumble in heaps before the entrances. In walking amongst 

 the hives the scent of honey was as noticeable as the perfume 

 In an extensive flower garden. But the time for honey-gath- 

 ering during this month is limited on account of much cloudy 

 weather. 



Nailing hives. — In nailing hives use common 6-penny 

 nails. Then first make a hole before driving the nails 



