)e (|>ee-)\eepeps' jAeVie/ 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tl^e Iqterests of Hoqey Producer^ 



$1,00 A YEAR 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor, 



VOL. XII, FLINT. 



ICHiGAN, JUlY 10 K,00 



NO, 7. 



OVING BEES TO FALL 



PASTURAGE. WHEN IT 



IS PROFITABLE, AND 



HOW IT IS DONE. BY 



GEO. DEMUTH. 



My locality lurnishes surplus honey 

 from clover and basswood only. No 

 honey is gathered after the basswood har- 

 vest closes, the bees thus becoming con- 

 sumers in July. Twenty-five miles away, 

 in a region of small lakes, are numerous 

 "dead lakes," or swamps and prairies. In 

 August and September the goldenrod and 

 Spanish needle transform these prairies 

 again into lakes, surpassing even their 

 former glory, with their brilliant yellow 

 surface stretching from shore to shore. 

 Those that are dry enough to pasture pre- 

 sent a silvery appearance from the abun- 

 dance of boneset. In the adjacent corn- 

 fields, heartsease is plentiful during wet 

 seasons; and on the sandy upland, golden- 

 rod monopolizes the waste land. 



My management at home has been 

 such that the bees are brought through 

 the white honey harvest short of stores; 

 the honey having gone into the supers. 

 This necessitates feeding for winter; the 

 the expense of whicli, after a poor season, 

 when most of the cash receipts must be 

 invested iu sugar, has sometimes almost 



made me wish I had never seen a bee. 

 In I. "596 I moved a load of bees to this 

 location of autumn flowers, and secured 

 an average of about forty pounds of comb 

 honey per colony. In addition to this, 

 each hive contained enough honey to last 

 until the next spring. 



Since then a part of each year's pro- 

 gram has been this "mid-summer outing;" 

 and I have not fed a.iy for winter since I 

 began moving. 



While the net returns from surplus 

 honey secured by moving have been by 

 no means ilazzling, } et tlie cash realized 

 on the time actually spent makes a per 

 diem wage which, if continuous, would 

 tempt most of us. 



One year very little surplus was secured, 

 yet if there had been none, the increased 

 amount of brood reared and the filling of 

 the hives for winter would have been 

 ample pay for the time spent in moving. 



Many have asked why I do not locate 

 per nanently in this prairie region. If I 

 were located there I would need to move 

 here for the early honey flow. When the 

 honey flow ceases here, the sections are 

 removed, and, as far as they will go, ex- 

 tracting supers are ady.isted. If I had 

 enough extracting supers I would ordi- 

 narily extract all the amber honey; yet, 

 as I have no trouble in selling this amber 



