Allen Dick writes:
>Therefore I dream of a cube van and an enclosed trailer or two.  The boys
like loading the trailer (a low one) using handcarts better than using the
boom loader on the flat deck, believe it or not.  Several van trailers could
be loaded and left sitting in a yard for pickup when convenient - even by a
small person with a pickup truck at night in the pouring rain several days
later - with no ill effects.
 
   A closed van might be a great thing when you are caught in a thunderstorm
with a load of supers, but it is very risky for hauling bees. The east coast
migratories used to use a lot of reefers, but eveyone I know has gone to
using flatbeds. It might be a good idea to talk with some of the ex-users
before buying.
   I can tell you some real horror stories of reefer breakdowns, of truckers
with girlfriends en route, even though they left the reefers running.  I know
of one entire load lost, simply because it was parked for eight hours with
the reefer running. All the bees left the hives, and were hanging on the
walls and ceiling. The owner scooped up bees with a grain shovel and put some
back into each hive, but the brood was dead, and even with all new queens, he
still lost almost all the hives.
   Stacked bee hives produce an enormous amount of heat. A friend and I had a
close call with one reefer. After we got loaded we waited for the temperature
to drop, as the trucker assured us it would. Instead it began to climb. We
borrowed a hose and hydrant from the fire department and watered them down,
but it only helped for about a half hour, then the gauge showed another slow
climb.
   We had to take off a third of the load, which meant another trip for
those, and the trucker gave no discount for hauling two thirds of a load.
    Just recently a load arrived that had been parked for two days on an open
flatbed in below freezing weather, so maybe it isn't just heat.  He had many
more dead bees than I would regard as acceptable on the bed of the truck. I
suspect that lack of ventilation caused a carbon dioxide build up in the
lower tiers.
    So Allen, and others thinking of buying closed trucks: Look before you
leap.  Good luck.
[log in to unmask]    Eastern Pollinator Newsletter, PO Box 1215, Hemingway,
SC   29554   -Dave Green