746 
SHIPPING BEES 
Loading three-frame nuclei on launch preparatory to trip five miles up the river to the nucleus yard. 
SHIPPING BEES WITHOUT COMBS. 
On account of the danger of transmit¬ 
ting foul brood from one locality to an¬ 
other when bees are sent in hives or on 
combs, the practice of shipping bees with¬ 
out combs, or in pound packages, is becom¬ 
ing more and more common. Not only is 
there no danger of scattering disease, but 
it is actually cheaper. A colony of bees on 
combs, besides being liable to convey the 
germs of foul brood, is relatively heavier 
—much heavier than the light wire-cloth 
cage or shipping box containing an equiva¬ 
lent capacity in bees without combs. Scores 
of instances have shown that the three- 
pound package of bees without combs is 
practically equivalent to an average colony 
wintered over in the North. So far as 
their ability to secure a crop of honey is 
concerned, package bees, when hived on 
combs, will make a good colony, if rightly 
handled, by the time the ordinary honey 
harvest comes on. The time has arrived 
when beekeepers are considering whether 
it would not be cheaper to buy bees in 
three-pound packages from _ the South 
rather than go to the expense of wintering 
over bees of the previous fall that will eat 
up honey or good stores and possibly die 
before spring. 
Many of the largest beekeepers in the 
North are having shipped to them in Nearly 
spring three-pound packages of bees in 
lots of one and two dozen packages to a 
Bees in package form ready for shipment. 
