THE BEE-KEEPERS' KEVIEW 



171 



days, and keep the fing'er right on them, 

 and keep them in line and bring' them 

 to time. 



Our seasons here in Vermont are 

 very short, and we must so manage as 

 to make the most of them by holding 

 the swarming instinct down to the 

 most productive point. By manipula- 

 tion of the principal conditions that pro- 



duce swarming rather than depending 

 on those minor conditions which, 

 hereabouts, at least are very uncertain. 

 And these conditions should be so 

 m'lnipuhited as to check the storing of 

 surplus as little as possible, but rather 

 stimulate them to do their best. 



MiDDLEBUKY, Vt,, Jan. 23, 1006. 



MovliHi^ 4®0 Coloimles to tlhie R^sp« 

 berr^ IPL©Msoim© off MldbWaioio 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



iJV-T the last meeting of the National 

 ■f'i in Chicago, Mr. K. F. Holter- 

 mann, in speaking of migratory bee- 

 keeping, said that the management of 

 one apiar}' at home was "play " as 

 compared with moving bees about on 

 the migratory plan — during the last 

 three weeks this expression has come 

 to me a great many times. The fasten- 

 ing of bees into hives, some of which 

 are poorh' adapted to that purpose, the 

 lifting, loading and unloading of 

 heavy hives, the work at night, that 

 will come sometimes in spite of ever3'- 

 thing, in order to carry out plans that 

 can't well be changed, the "leaking" 

 of bees from some crack or crevice that 

 has been overlooked— well, I think that 

 " strenuous " is the right word to use 

 in describing the life a man leads who 

 does much moving about of bees. 



Ifirst went to Plainwell, the home of 

 ISIr. W. E. Forbes. Here I had a pretty 

 easy time. The supers had all been 

 prepared read 3' to fasten on top of the 

 hives, when, as soon as this was done 

 and the entrance closed the bees were 

 ready for shipment. Four or five 

 combs had been placed in each super, 

 and fastened, by tacking strips across, 

 so that they could not move. Cross- 



wise of the combs, on top of them, was 

 fastened a strip of wood an inch and 

 one-half in thickness, and rounded oft 

 at each end, so that it resembled an 

 inverted cradle rocker. Over all was 

 fastened a sheet of wire cloth. A super 

 thus prepared was fastened over each 

 hive by tacking strips of lath on at 

 each corner of the hive. When the 

 bees had stopped flying at night the 

 entrances were closed by tacking a 

 strip of wood over each entrance, a 

 lantern being needed to finish this part 

 of the work. The next morning the 

 bees (100 colonies) were hauled to the 

 car on hay racks with bolster springs 

 under them. As the distance was 

 short, there was no attempt at taking a 

 big load by tiering up the hives, sim- 

 ply setting one tier of hives all over 

 the hay rack. 



HOW TO LOAD BEES IN A CAR. 



A stock car was used, and to load 

 the bees, a row of hives was set down 

 in one end, the combs parallel with the 

 track. Six hives nearly completed the 

 row, and a super, or covers, or some- 

 thing of this sort, was crowded in to 

 fill out the row. Two strips of board, 

 an inch and one-half in width, were 

 then laid on top of the ITives, length- 



