i?eb. 1, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



67 



age. I gave one-half the surplus to my brother as his share 

 of the " spoils." 



Had buckwheat yielded well, which, in this locality, 

 happens once in about half a dozen years, nothing would 

 have been gained by moving the bees. The inability to 

 foretell the honey-flow in any given locality is the greatest 

 obstacle in the way of successful migratory bee-keeping. 

 In the Bee-Keepers' Review for August, 1889, Mr. R. h. 

 Taylor said: "I might have mad? $l,000-by moving 100 

 colonies there [to a certain locality] last year; but I might 

 expend $200 each year for the next five years in moving 

 bees back and forth, and find at the end of that time that I 

 could have obtained more honey if I had not moved them at 

 all. This I admit is not likely, as the advantages of that 

 locality for a full crop are so much greater than this, but it 

 is possible." 



Only 40 miles from here, on a direct line of railroad, is 

 a locality where the main honey-flow comes in the fall ; yet 

 nothing is secured here at that time. All bee-keepers know 

 that the distance of only a few miles often makes all the 

 difference between no crop and a bountiful harvest, and the 

 question is. Can't bee-keepers take advantage of this fact ? 

 If they can, why don't they do more than they do ? Either 

 the moving of bees to_take advantage of transient, neigh- 

 boring flows is unprofitable, on the whole, or else this part of 

 bee-keeping has been neglected. Bee-yards, honey-houses, 

 etc., are all gotten up with permanency of location in view. 

 The bee-keeper gathers about him these conveniences and 

 appliances, arranging his apiary, and if the honey comes to 

 him, all right ; if it doesn't, he does not think of going to 

 the honey. 



The expense of moving to and from a locality a few 

 miles distant need not be so very great. From 30 to 40 colo- 

 nies can be moved on a large hay-rack ; or a special rack 

 might be constructed, by means of which one team could 

 haul SO colonies. Small, light, readily-movable hives are a 

 great advantage. One of the great advantages of fixt 

 frames, about which there has been so much said of late, is 

 that they need no fastening when an apiary is moved. An 

 apiarist who is going to practice moving his bees to secure 

 better pastures, must have hives, fixtures and other arrange- 

 ments suitable for that purpose. It ought not to take more 

 than two or three minutes to prepare a hive of bees for 

 moving. 



Some localities are blest with white clover, basswood 

 and fall flowers — and, by the way, the man who is to make 

 a specialty of bee-keeping ought to seek such a locality — 

 but many who are already engaged in bee-keeping are 

 permanently located, have friends and relatives living near, 

 and prefer not to move away even if the profits would be 

 increast thereby. Then, again, it is difficult to find a first- 

 class locality of clover or basswood that is equally good for 

 fall flowers. And the better the locality the greater the 

 danger of its being overstockt by its very attractiveness, 

 bringing together so many bee-keepers. 



Years ago movable frames or combs were invented. In 

 the last few years many of us have been learning to accom- 

 plish many things by handling hives instead of combs, and 

 the expression, " readily-movable hive," has been coined. 

 Now we are beginning to talk about readily-movable api- 

 aries — those that, with a day's warning, can be pickt up 

 and set down 20 miles away where a "honey-shower" is 

 passing. 



I scarcely feel like advising a bee-keeper to move his 

 apiary to some other locality, with the hope of securing a 

 greater yield than it is possible to secure at home, when the 

 yield at home may be a fair one ; but when a bee-keeper has 

 only one — white clover or basswood, or fall flowers — from 

 which to secure surplus, yet lives only a few miles from one 

 or both of the other sources, it does seem to me as tho he 

 ought to consider the advisability of moving his bees to 

 these other fields when the harvest is ready for the laborers. 

 To me this seems like a more promising field for experiment 

 than that of planting for honey. Instead of spending time 

 and money for seeds, land and cultivation, let us move our 

 bees to where Nature has already scattered the flowers with 

 a lavish hand. 



There is another form of migratory bee-keeping that 

 has long been the dream of apiarists — that of starting with 

 an apiary in the South at the opening of the honey season, 

 and moving northward with the season, keeping pace with 

 the advancing bloom, thus keeping the bees " in clover " 

 during the whole summer. The difficulties to overcome are 

 those of transportation. There is no single line of railroad 

 running north and south for a sufficiently long distance to 

 enable an apiary to be moved north for a long enough dis- 

 tance to make a success of migratory bee-keeping. When 



shipping bees by freight on the migratory plan, the delays 

 at junction points are sometimes not only vexatious, but 

 disastrous. It is for this reason that longing eyes have 

 been cast at the Mississippi Riverand her steamboats ; and 

 once C. O. Perrine tried moving .several hundred colonies 

 up the Mississippi on a barge towed by a tug. 



The plan was to run up the river nights, and " tie up" 

 during the day, to allow the bees to work. There were sev- 

 eral reasons why the plan was a failure. The start was 

 made too la'te in the season, and accidents to the machinery 

 of the tugs caused delays. In order to overtake the bloom, 

 it became necessary to confine the bees and run day and 

 night. The confinement for so long was disastrous to the 

 bees. Those who aided in the enterprise believe that, 

 rightly managed, moving bees up the Mississippi, to keep 

 pace with the bloom, might be made a success. 



Mr. Byron Walker, who has had much experience in 

 bringing bees from the South, greatly favors the Miss- 

 issippi plan of practicing migratory bee-keeping. He would 

 not put the bees on a barge and tow the barge with a tug, 

 but would load the bees on a regular steamer running up 

 the river, setting them off at some desirable point, and 

 then shipping them by boat to another point farther up the 

 river as the flow began to wane. In the fall he would take 

 the bees back to the South for the winter. 



Of course, bees moved in hot weather must have plenty 

 of ventilation, but this alone will not save the brood. To 

 save the brood, the bees must have plenty of water. As 

 obstacle after obstacle has been removed in home bee-keep- 

 ing, so the migratory plan may yet be robbed of its draw- 

 backs. 



Right here a hypothetical question comes to mind : 

 Suposing that an apiary moving up the Mississippi secures 

 six crops of honey — six times as much as a stationary api- 

 ary — would this be more profitable than six stationary api- 

 aries ? In other words, which is the more promising field 

 for enterprise — following up the season or establishing out- 

 apiaries ? On this point there are many things to be con- 

 sidered, and varying circumstances would lead to different 

 decisions. To establish six apiaries would require consid- 

 erable capital, and the labor of caring for the honey crop 

 would all come at one time, while there would be only a 

 " chance " of securing a crop. With the migratory plan 

 only one apiary would be needed, and the work of caring 

 for the surplus would not all come at the same time. With 

 the stationary apiaries, there would be no expense for trans- 

 portation, which is a big thing. — Country Gentleman. 



Genesee Co., Mich. 



Report of the Michigan Bee-Keepers' Convention 



BY WM. G. VOORHBIS. 



[Contiuned from page S3.] 

 CUPPING THB queen's wings. 



Mr. Hilton — The trouble is where the queen's wings 

 are dipt when the swarm comes out ; if you are not on hand 

 to catch her, you are liable to lose her. 



Mr. Beecham — If you stay right at the hive and watch 

 her it is all right. You must be there to see the queen drop, 

 so as to catch her. 



Mr. Bingham — I have tried clipping queens' wings a 

 good deal. I do not do so now, as it is sometimes a great 

 bother. The queen drops on the ground because she can 

 not fly. The bees fly all over a 10-acre lot, trying to find 

 her. Should other swarms come out, any one of them hav- 

 ing a young queen, they will all cluster around the young 

 queen. Then you will have a barrel of bees to separate. I 

 have had as many as 7 or 8 swarms together. 



Mr. Calvert — I think it is a good plan to clip the 

 queen's wings where the swarm is liable to cluster on a 

 high tree. Clipt queens are profitable in small apiaries 

 where a farmer is out at work, and can not attend to them 

 at the time. Where the apiary is large it is apt to mix up 

 the bees all over the yard. It is more apt to make swarms 

 go together. 



