348 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



crop I would sow buckwheat July 4; for the 

 best possible grain crop, sow the 15th or 18th of 

 July. 



Medina, O. 



Heads of Grain 



From Different Fields 



MOVING SHORT DISTANCE RESULTED IN PRAC- 

 TICALLY NO LOSS. 



About the beginning of the past winter I wrote 

 to the editor and also to Mr. G. M. Doolittle, 

 asking their advice about moving my bees 100 

 yards. Mr. Root advised moving them some 

 two miles or more and letting them remain eight 

 or ten weeks as the most practical way to avoid 

 a big loss of bees. Mr. Doolittle advised me to 

 move them at the beginning of a cold rough 

 spell of weather, right from the old stand to the 

 new. I felt satisfied that, if I would reduce the 

 loss of bees to a minimum, I must adopt the 

 plan as advised by Mr. Root; but being pressed 

 for time, and the roads being very bad, I decided 

 to take Mr. Doolittle's advice. So about the 

 first cold spell we had in February I moved the 

 bees to their new stands in the apple orchard. 



In a few dajs the weather was warm and the 

 bees were in full flight; and, my! how they did 

 return to the old stands! and they kept up this 

 returning (I say reluming because nearly all of 

 them seemed to go back to the new stands at 

 about sundown) for six or eight days, when ev- 

 ery thing seemed to quiet down, and I believe 

 my bees are in as good condition as they would 

 have been had they not been moved at all. 



One hive that stood out by itself I shook after 

 moving to the new stand; but I don't think it 

 lessened the number of returning bees, as some 

 seem to think. In moving 50 colonies I do not 

 think I lost more th»n one or two thousand bees. 



Should I ever wish to move them a short dis- 

 tance again I would not hesitate a moment to 

 move them any distance in winter, and I believe 

 it would work any time if honey is not coming 

 in. 



I failed to state at the outset that Doolittle ad- 

 vised leaving a board over the entrance for a few 

 days after moving, which 1 did. 



Woffard, S. C, April 25. S. Cheatham. 



ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS ON MOVING BEES IN CAR 

 LOTS. 



What is the best way to arrange the beei in a 

 car.? How many cclonies make an average car- 

 load.'' No doubt the weijjht of the colony would 

 count, but possibly the capacity of the car would 

 be greater as regatdj weight than space for this 

 purpose; so the only question would be that of 

 how many colonies an ordinary car would hold. 



As Mr. M A. Gill, of Longmont, has just 

 shipped a carload, no doubt you could obtain 

 from him a.practical article covering all these 

 points, and one that would be interestinj reading 

 eren to those who do not expect to ship bees in 

 that way, as Mr. G. has the knack of explaining 

 the little points that many overlook , but are the 

 very ones most important; and one who has leen 



him load honey in cars would know he would 

 load bees just the right way. W. Hicko.x. 



Fort Collins, Colo., Apr. 30. 



[You will probably find the information you 

 seek, In regard to the matter of moving bees, edi- 

 torially on p. 260 of May 1st Gleanings. Between 

 300 and 400 colonies can be accommodated in a 

 car; bat when we moved 500 colonies to Cuba 

 we used nearly two cars. Five hundred in one 

 car, unless it were a very large one, would be a 

 little crowded. It is quite important to leave an 

 aisle down through the car so that the man who 

 accompanies the bees can get at any one colony 

 to give it the needed attention. There should 

 also be room enough between the hives on a ver- 

 tical line so tliat there will be a free circulation 

 of air, and at the same time allow the man to 

 spray the screen of any colony that is becoming 

 too hot or clustering too tightly on the wire 

 cloth. 



We have written Mr. Gill for a report of his 

 experience in moving a car of bees. — Ed.] 



colonies MOVED 1600 MILES BY RAIL IN WIN- 

 TER. 



I have just reached Northern Wisconsin with 

 26 colonies of bees, having come from New 

 Mexico, a distance of 1600 miles. Before I 

 started, the bees had a good fly almost every day 

 till I screened the entrances, Jan. 4. They were 

 put in a car on Jan. 5, arrived at Bruce Jan. 19, 

 and were taken out Jan. 23, hauled 11 miles, and 

 put in the cellar after reversing the bottom-boards 

 from the Ys bee-space to a 2-inch space (Miller 

 scyle of bottom-board). They had no two-inch 

 rim with screen at top. The weather, till I got 

 as far as Amarilla, Texas, was warm enough for 

 bees to fly; and I wished, after I started, that I 

 had put screens over the top; but it was cool 

 enough from Amarilla till I arrived at Bruce, 

 Wis. They certainly had a trying time. Bed- 

 springs, etc , were over the hives, and the car 

 would throw them up and down and jar the hives 

 terribly. When I reversed the bottom-boards 

 after they were put in the cellar some had a pint 

 of dead bees; but most of them had very few. 

 They were all alive and appeared all right. 



Carlsbad, N. M. S. D. Clark. 



FOUR YEARS AMONG THE BEES; SEE FRONT COV- 

 OF LAST ISSUE. 



In 1905 I purchased my first colony of bees, 

 and I have been increasing ever since. At pres- 

 ent I have 35 colonies. On the cover of last is- 

 sue is a reproduction from a photograph of my 

 apiary, which I have given the name of Clover- 

 dale. I run mostly for extracted honey. This I 

 bottle in one-pound bottles, and sell retail in 

 nearby towns and villages. In 1908 I harvested 

 over one ton of extracted honey besides some 

 comb honey from 22 colonies which I had in the 

 spring. Those large hives in the background 

 are chaff-packed. I use the method of tiering up 

 the brood above the queen-excluder. 



Honey in this locality is mostly gathered from 

 alsike and white clover. The bees were gather- 

 ing pollen this year about the middle of Februa- 

 ry. Howard A. Tibben. 



Jarrettown, Pa. 



