Although a number of queen-breeders of this country have been fairly
successful in shipping queens to foreign lands through the mails,
still, a few of these breeders, as well as many others who have not
been favored with a foreign order, have been pretty unlucky in sending
queens across the continent of America at certain times of the year.
One would think that if a man who has been successful in shipping bees,
say to Australia, would also send them every time to any part of the
Pacific Coast without losing a single bee. Yet, such is not the fact.
I have known of breeders who have sent their queens almost everywhere,
but who cannot send them to California without frequently losing some.
There are many causes for this, some of which I shall try to tell about
in this article. What I shall write about will be based altogether
on observations and experiments last summer. In carrying on these
experiments, I did it not only for my own benefit, but also for the
benefit of the queen-breeders of the country. It had become annoying to
me to receive a queen dead, that I was hoping would come to me alive.
Sometimes I would have a colony to which I wanted to introduce an
Italian queen, and expected one from the East in a few days. I would,
consequently, let this colony remain queenless, as I hoped to give
them the queen which I expected in a day or two. But how provoking it
would be when the queen, which was expected with so much anticipation,
came to hand as dead as dead could be. This state of affairs not
only happened once, but a number of times. It was for the purpose of
learning a way to get queens to this State alive every time, that I
gave a good deal of attention to the subject. That I learned something
of value, I am satisfied; that my experiments will be of value to those
breeders who ship to these distant parts, I also hope.
When I would get one of these queens dead, I would first look to see if
the food in the cage had given out. In no case have I ever found that
the food was anywhere near exhausted by the bees. More often the food
would be hardly consumed; sometimes it was so hard that I would not
be surprised but it would have required a good sized sledge hammer to
break the so-called candy sent as food for the poor bees to exist on
while in transit.
Then I would look to the ventilation. This I have considered an
important thing in shipping queens; too often the shipper trusts to
the ventilation provided by the manufacturer of the cages he uses.
For short distances, these ventilation holes made by the manufacturer
are quite sufficient, but for long distances and through a very hot
country, they are far from being just right. It is well that the maker
does not undertake to make them as open as a saw-mill, for they would,
in the language of Bill Nye, allow too much atmosphere to enter them.
This would not do during the early or late months of the year, should
the breeder have occasion to ship at those seasons.
I find that one of the reasons that much of the candy used in the cages
becomes hard, is because the wood of which the cage is made soaks
up the moisture of the candy; in other words, the honey, of which
the candy is partly composed, is absorbed by the wood. This state of
affairs is easily remedied by coating the hole, where the candy is to
be stored, with beeswax or paraffine. This should also be done, as it
prevents the candy from becoming poisoned by the wood, as is sometimes
the case.
Another thing that I learned was unnecessary during the heated term of
the year was, that it is dangerous to send too many bees along with
the queen. I have found that some breeders will send as many as 16 in
a two-ounce cage during July, when nine or ten were plenty enough. One
breeder had the former number in an ounce cage; it stood to reason
that so many bees raised the temperature in the cage to a very high
degree when the bees were crossing the deserts where it is naturally
hot. No bees in the world could live through such a trying time as they
must necessarily be subjected to in a small compartment where each
individual bee helps to raise the temperature in a climate, which, as
I have said, is already too hot.
There is nothing so successful for feeding bees for a journey across
the United States as soft candy. The softer it is the better; the only
trouble is that we cannot use it as soft as we would like to. This is
owing to the fact that when too soft it is apt to run in the cage,
and not only daub the bees, but also the mails, should any of it get
outside the cage, as it will likely do if the bees do not eat it as
fast as it shifts about. Then, when it is soft, there may be trouble
by the bees that may happen to die during the trip, getting stuck in
the soft candy, so-called. Should several such dead bees get stuck
at the entrance to the food compartment, there may be a likelihood
that the remaining live bees may not be able to get to the food, and
consequently starve to death.
So, from all these things, I think that while the Benton queen
shipping-case is a very good one for shipping queens several hundred
miles, it will have to be modified somewhat for sending such insects
long distances, without making it as large as the export cage, which I
find to be a very good cage to send bees in to even this State. Though
this last-named cage is about the best cage I have seen for getting
queens alive to this part of the world, it is too large for shipping
dollar queens in, as the breeder cannot well afford to pay the extra
postage and cost of such cages just for shipping a queen for which he
only receives 100 cents. And yet, considering the fact that if the
queen is shipped in one of the smaller cages, and she should die before
she reaches the purchaser, the shipper would have to replace her, it
would be cheaper in the long run for the breeder to have used a larger
cage in the first instance. But as my experiments have been directed
toward using as small a cage as possible, and yet secure the same
results as if a large cage were used, I shall confine my observations
to such lines, as, in truth, I think I have been doing.
North Temescal, Calif.
(Concluded next week.)
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Wintering Bees in the Cellar.
_Written for the American Bee Journal_