• -' BEES. 



Should the siirroimdinf^ neig-hbourhood not furnish a suf- 

 ficiency of flowers, the practice of transportation, or shifting-, 

 IS strongly recommended by many authors. It is not in 

 the power of every bee-keeper, but as those whose home is 

 ])hiced by a river or canal, have a means at hand for transport- 

 inj;- their hives, I have chosen to mention it here. In some 

 countries, boats are built expressly for this purpose. They 

 receive a very large number of hives in each boat, and by 

 travelling' for a few hours at night, the bees find themselves 

 in a new country during* their working- hours, and the hives 

 ^re rapidly filled with honey and wax of the best quality. 

 The boatmen receive a small sum for each hive that they 

 transport, but I rather fancy that their ingenuity does not 

 rest until it has extracted some portion of the honey from 

 the best filled hives. The Nile is much used for this pur- 

 pose, and bees traverse the entire length of Egypt during 

 the summer. In China ducks are subjected to the same 

 migratory life, and thrive amazingty. Hives may easily be 

 carried on men's shoulders, as that mode of conveyance 

 shakes them less than carriage by waggon. Heaths are the 

 best places that bees can possibly live in, and in Scotland 

 there are people who make their living by taking care of 

 hives during the time that the heath is in blossom, a period 

 of about two months, for which time a rent of from one 

 shilHng to eighteen pence is paid by the proprietor. It is 

 always necessary while the bees are migrating, to take them 

 at least ten miles during the nocturnal journey, as they are 

 otherwise apt to fly back to the former position of their hive, 

 and to lose themselves in searching for it. The distance to 

 which bees can fly for food is shown in the following anec- 

 dote, which has been recently published : — 



'' A man who kept bees in Holborn, and wishing to find 

 out where they worked, sprinkled them all with a red 

 powder as they came out of the hive in the morning. As 

 the heath and thyme were now in full bloom, he at once 

 thought that Hampstead, being the nearest heath, would be 

 the likeliest place to find his bees. As soon, therefore, as 

 liis bees were gone away, he hastened to the heights of 

 Hampstead. The walk was a long and toilsome one, of 

 tit least four miles, in a July sun. But he trudged man- 

 fully on, soon left behind him Camden and Kentish Towns, 



