58 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING 



cheese-cloth, and the skep placed upon its crown 

 and secured in an open box. 



Special swarm-boxes are constructed with large 

 openings in the sides and top, which openings arc 

 covered with perforated zinc, providing a plentiful 

 supply of air. In all cases label conspicuously, 

 " Live Bees, With Great Care," and despatch to 

 the customer at once. When sending by rail they 

 should always be sent by passenger train. 



When swarm-boxes are used it simplifies matters 

 if the bees are hived directly into them. This can 

 easily be accomplished by darkening all the venti- 

 lation openings round the box by means of brown 

 paper or cardboard tacked on the outside. The 

 box then can be used in the same way as a skep, 

 but be careful to uncover the ventilation openings 

 before sending the swarm away. 



With Isle of Wight disease so rampant it is 

 very inadvisable to send bees from one district to 

 another, for there is no doubt disease is largely 

 spread in this way. No one can definitely say that 

 their apparently clean bees may not be spore 

 carriers, and for the time being, at any rate, it 

 would be well for all swarms to be sold at home. 

 One effect of the ra,vages of this disease is a sharp 

 rise in the price of bees, in the shape of either 

 swarms or stocks. These cannot now be obtained 

 at the prices quoted in other chapters. The prices 

 now are in a sense abnormal, and while it may be 

 a considerable time before we get back to the old 

 prices — we may not get quite back to them at all — 

 there will without doubt be a considerable fall as 

 the supply of bees again reaches the normal. 



