GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Finding out how tlie " molecules " of the swarm body move freelj' about. 



writer investigating' the movements, al- 

 though in one of the two poses his bald 

 head is perhaps more conspicuous than the 

 colony of bees. I suggest to the veteran 

 beekeeper that, if he wants to interest boys 

 and girls in bees, he may make the subject 

 far more attractive if he will tell them of 

 these movements with special s!ress on the 

 individual independence of each constituent 

 insect. That will be better than to lay so 

 much stress on the fact that they pi'oduce 

 something that may be sold or is good to 

 eat. Here is food for thought. The brain 

 and heart are more valual)le than the stom- 

 ach or the pocketbook. 



Arcadia, Sound Beach, Ct. 



MOVING 250 COLONIES 210 MILES 



BY J. L. BYER 



Mention was made in the June 1st Glean- 

 ings about my plans to move a large apiary 

 some 200 miles from my home; and in view 

 of the fact that a number have written me 

 asking how we got along, I am prompted to 

 give a write-up of the trip, not with the in- 

 tention of being able to say any thing orig- 

 inal on the subject of moving bees, but 

 rather with the thought that perhaps some- 

 body may have similar work to do in the 

 near future, and may be able to get some 



slight help by reading about the experi- 

 ences that naturally occur on a trip of this 

 kind. 



Briefly, the problem before us was some- 

 thing like this: 250 colonies of bees with 

 about ."JOO supers of extracting-combs, stor- 

 age-tanks, barrels, extractor, uncapping- 

 cans, etc., situated 200 miles from home, all 

 to be prepared foi' moving, hauled three 

 mihs to the station, for a trip of 260 miles 

 by rail, and, in the end, to be hauled a mile 

 and placed on stands in their new locatioii. 



The first thing to do was to formulate 

 plans to carry out the work successfully. 

 It is needless to say, eonsideiable study 

 was spent on the matter for a few weeks 

 prior to the trip. Many of the bottom- 

 Ijoards w^ere none too solid, so I had a num- 

 ber made at home and shipped down a week 

 before I went myself with a man to help 

 me. Then the ciuestion of ventilation had 

 to be decided upon, as ventilation and water 

 are the two prime requisites in order to in- 

 sure good results in moving bees by car lots 

 in warm weather. As I had 90 screens on 

 hand from last year's trijj I utilized them ; 

 but for the rest I decided to use cotton on 

 half-depth supers. Screens and cotton were 

 shipped ahead with the bottom-boards. 



We left home on the 14th of May, arriv- 

 ing at our destination about four in the 

 afternoon. 



