1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



honey in a hive is all 

 sealed, as is the case 

 in winter, the bees will 

 not load with honey 

 when disturbed. In 

 the winter, from actu- 

 al experience I find 

 that the bees will rush 

 against the screen at 

 the entrance; and after 

 two or three hours, no 

 matter how much the 

 car or wagon jars 

 them, they will leave 

 the entrance and qui- 

 etly cluster as though 

 they were undisturb- 

 ed. After my experi- 

 ence of being in a car 

 three days on one oc- 

 casion, and two days 

 and two nights on an- 

 other, and never hav- 

 ing a lot of bees do 

 nicer, I honestly think 

 a month would not 

 have done them any 

 harm. All this mov- 

 ing I am referring to 

 was in freezing weath- 

 er, and I never found 

 more than from a doz- 

 en to twenty dead bees 

 when I took off the 

 screen. In winter, the 

 only ventilation neces- 

 sary is at the screened 

 entrance, which should 

 be i X 1 2 inches. 



I have moved a 

 great many colonies in 

 warm weather in well- 

 screened hives. I have even put empty bod- 

 ies on top, and covered them with screens, 

 and then found from actual experience that, 

 if water is not given the bees every few 

 hours, they will destroy all unsealed brood 

 the first 24 hours. By the second day all un- 

 sealed brood, as a rule, will be gone; even if 

 plenty of water is given, and if the colony 

 was very strong in starting, it would be only 

 a mere nucleus by the time the first honey- 

 flow occurred after the arrival. Under such 

 condition the queen seldom has any ambi- 

 tion. Light colonies stand summer moving 

 much better. They will build up and do 

 finely. 



On Nov. 6 I moved 23 light colonies to my 

 new home from bac Co., la., having sold all 

 of my stronger ones, and they have come 

 through in good shape. The distance was a 

 little over luO miles, and the time in transit 

 was 33 hours. I took them in a car with 

 other stock and household goods. 



Now, if I had bees in Iowa, or in any 

 other State, and intended moving at any 

 time up to May, I would move by all means 

 in December, or during a month that would 

 correspond to December in Iowa. When I 

 arrived at the destination I would not be 

 afraid to put the colonies in a cellar. Any 



EDNA FRITZSCHE, AGE FOUR YEARS, 



bees that I might see would be small and 

 wonderfully active, and at the entrance there 

 would be a find dry dust which we all ac- 

 cept as good conditions for any colony. My 

 reason for preferring December is that the 

 weather is usually not so severe during that 

 month; otherwise, January or February is 

 just as suitable. 



When I moved to Sac City, la., five years 

 ago, I moved three two-frame nuclei, five 

 three-frame nuclei, as well as some full colo- 

 nies, all of which had been in a cellar up to 

 March 1. They were taken out of the cellar, 

 and loaded in the car and shipped about 300 

 miles without any profit. While on the way 

 the weather was just a little above zero. I 

 never had bees do better. 



In a later article I will tell how to load 

 colonies in a car and how to ship bees in less 

 than carload lots. On most of the railroads 

 bees can not be shipped in less than carload 

 lots except by express, unless certain methods 

 are used which must necessarily be in strict 

 accordance with the rules. During the last 

 ten years I have always sent household goods, 

 bees, etc., in emigrant cars. 



After reading this, if any one wishes to 

 know how bees behave on the road in win- 

 ter, let him take a colony in a buggy a few 



