MIGRATORY BEE-KEEPING. 



306 



MOVING BEES. 



tioii in the valley will be too wet for the 

 proper growth of plants yielding nectar, 

 while on the higher ground, a few miles 

 away, conditions will be just right for a fine 

 flow of honey. 



The knowledge of these varying condi- 

 tions in localities only a few miles apart has 

 led some bee-keepers to practice what is 

 known as migratory bee-keeping. For ex- 

 ample, in one yard it is evident that bees 

 are not getting any honey, and there is no 

 flora of any sort that gives any promise of 

 any. On the other hand, there is another 

 yard that is doing well, and there are still 

 other locations withovit bees where there are 

 iaimense quantities of alsike or red clover, 

 or of buckwheat. Evidently it is a part of 

 wisdom and business sense to move the yard 

 that is yielding no returns to the location in 

 which tlie honey can be secured. 



While migratory bee-keeping is not prac- 

 ticed to any considerable extent in this coun- 

 try, largely because of the expense of moving, 

 yet there are some sections in the country 

 that make the practice exceedingly profitable. 

 In Germany migratory bee-keeping is car- 

 ried on somewhat more extensively than in 

 this country, and occasionally we hear re- 

 ports of a whole bee-yard being put on an 

 immense raft on a river. This raft is se- 

 cured near the shore, and when the honey 

 crop is taken the raft is let loose, when the 

 raft, bees and all, are towed to pastures new. 

 These floating apiaries have never been 

 much of a success. Too many bees appear 

 to drop in the water and drown. Mr. C. O. 

 Perrine, many years ago, tried out this ex- 

 periment on the Mississippi River, but the 

 experiment was a financial failure. 



JM.lItlLWIiJi'DiAsdeinas Cornuti). This 

 plant is celebrated, not for the honey it pro- 

 duces, although it doubtless furnishes a 



POLLEN OF THE MILKWEED, ATTACHED TO 

 A bee's FOOT. 



good supply, but for its queer winged mass- 

 es of pollen which attach themselves to the 

 bee's feet, and cause it to become a crip- 

 ple, if not to lose its life. Every fall we 

 have many inquiries U'om Jiew subscribers 



in regard to this queer phenomenon. Some 

 think it a parasite, others a protuberance 

 growing on the bee's foot, and others a 

 winged insect-enemy of the bee. We give 

 here an engraving of the curiosity, magni- 

 fied at «, and also of a mass of them attached 

 to the foot of a bee. 



It is the same that Prof. Riley alluded to 

 when lie recommended that the milkweed 

 be planted to kill off bees when they be- 

 come troublesome to the fruit-grower. The 

 folly of such advice — think of the labor and 

 expense of starting a plantation of useless 

 w^eeds just to entrap honey-bees — becomes 

 more apparent when we learn that it is per- 

 haps only the old and enfeebled bees that 

 are unable to free themselves from these ap- 

 pendages, and hence the milkweed can 

 scarcely be called an enemy. The append- 

 ages, it will be observed, look like a pair of 

 wings, and they attach themselves to the bee 

 by a glutinous matter which quickly hard- 

 ens, so that it is quite dilhcult to remove if 

 not done when first attached. ■" r 



MOTH-WORMS. See Bee-biotii. 



MOVING BEES . Young bees, when they 

 first start out, or old ones on the first flight 

 of the season after a winter's confinement, 

 hover in the air, about the hive-entrance, 

 take a careful survey of surroundings, mak- 

 ing wider and wider circles, each time taking 

 in new objects by which they may familiar- 

 ize themselves with the home. Wlien the 

 location is once carefully marked they will 

 go back and forth without taking any note 

 of distinguishing objects. But when the 

 hive is moved only a few feet there is appar- 

 ent consternation and confusion. 



One can not, therefore, move his bees a 

 few feet or a quarter of a mile without hav- 

 ing the great majority of them go back to the 

 old spot unless treated by the plans we shall 

 describe. They would perish, or possibly 

 get into some other hive near their old loca- 

 tion, with the result that there would be a 

 fight, and many bees killed. 



If one desires to move his bees, and wishes 

 to take them at least a mile and a half or 

 two miles away, the problem is quite easy ; 

 for then they will stay wherever they are 

 placed. As soon as they are liberated in their 

 new position they will mark the location as 

 thoroughly and carefully as when taking 

 their first flight. After that they will go to 

 and from the same spot as if it had always 

 been their home. 



But to move our bfees from the front to the 

 back ya^d, ov, we will say, from a fourth to 



