May 10, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



291 



them to do, but invariably would get lost before commenc- 

 ing to lay. 



Being quite anxious to succeed if possible, I determined 

 to try again the past summer on a little different plan. 

 Having a number of cells in an upper story with an ex- 

 cluder between, I placed an oilcloth on the excluder at one 

 side of the hive. After cutting off all cells but one, I 

 brought the frame with this one on it, then put an exclud- 

 ing division-board between these three combs and the bal- 

 ance of the hive. 



I now awaited results with great hope of success, and 

 ■when I lookt the next day and found the queen crawling 

 over the combs as if she were at home, I thought that I was 

 on the right track, and closed the hive to await results. 



About three or four hours later I again opened the hive, 

 and found her on the division-board, the workers following 

 her as tho they would kill her. I took the three frames and 

 queen and placed them in a band-box, and set it beside the 

 hive. I thought they would realize their condition and 

 take care of the queen; but when I lookt again she was 

 dead. This makes about SO queens that I have lost in this 

 way. I may try again this season a three-story hive. 



Page Co., Iowa. 



Moving- Bees Short Distances— Spring- Dwindling- 



BY O. M. DOOI,ITTI,K. 



QUESTIONS keep pouring in, with the request that I 

 answer in the American Bee Journal, and as long as 

 they do so it will be mostly answers to .such questions 

 that I shall give in these columns ; but in answering I shall 

 try to go somewhat into the minutia of the thing, explain- 

 ing as fully as possible, so that perhaps the matter maj' be 

 as interesting to the general reader as articles from my 

 own selection would be. The first question lying before me 

 is regarding inoving bees short distances, and reads as 

 follows : 



" I wish to move my apiary of 40 colonies about one-fourlll of a mile 

 to a new place wiiich I have boug"ht, having' rented thus far. How can I 

 do this and not have the bees g"oback to their old location on their first 

 flight ? Also, tell nie how I best can move them." 



Answer. — The best way to move bees in early spring 

 is on a sled, if there is stiow, and I should use a sled with 

 broad or wide runners, or a stone-boat, even if there was no 

 snow, providing that the roads were soft, or very rough, as 

 they almost always are in early spring. If the roads are 

 smooth and hard, then a wagon is a good thing for moving 

 bees, especially where one with springs can be used. No 

 matter what vehicle is used to do the moving with, all but 

 the spring-wagon should have plenty of straw on the bottom 

 to take off or help neutralize any sudden movement or jar 

 which may come from the inoving vehicle. 



Where bees are to be moved from a few rods to not 

 more than 20 or 30, a stretcher, made by using two poles 

 with canvas or some kind of stout cloth attacht to each, 

 the same being used by two men to carry two hives, is bet- 

 ter than anything else. Bees can be moved in this way 

 where care is used, and they not know they have been dis- 

 turbed at all. 



Having decided on the kind of vehicle to be used when 

 doing the moving, the nest thing is to know 2ci/icn the bees 

 should be moved. Whenever bees are confined to their 

 hives in the spring from a week to ten days by rainy, cold, 

 snowy, or stormy weather, they will mark their location 

 anew on their first flight afterward, the same as a new 

 swarm marks its location upon its first flight after being 

 hived ; so, should there come a few days of stormy weather, 

 so as to keep the bees in their hive, then is your time to 

 move them ; and it is well not to delay more than six days 

 from the time they flew last, or warm weather may sud- 

 denly come upon you, when you will not be able to move 

 them till after another stormy spell, without its costing 

 you more work than is required at such a time. 



After they are moved, if warm weather is delayed, you 

 are safe in any event. Should no such cold or stormy time 

 come, then I would move the strongest of the colonies, and 

 let the weaker ones be strengthened by the returning bees 

 from those thus moved. If this is done, it is well to move 

 the weaker ones partially toward the stand of those moved, 

 so the returning bees may not fail to find this weaker col- 

 ony, from the greatness of the intervening distance be- 

 tween it and the old stand of the colony moved. But if the 

 stronger and weaker colonies stood farther than 10 feet 

 apart, this plan can not be adopted, for a success can not 

 be attained in drawing bees much farther than five feet 

 from their old location, even tho their own hive stands that 



near to where it formerly did. If you move the weaker 

 colony more than the five feet you lose whatever bees may 

 fly from that, and it is well not to lose a single bee in the 

 spring of the year, where the life of that bee can possibly 

 be saved, for one bee at this time of the year is of more 

 value than .SO in August. 



Should no stormy time come, as spoken of above, and 

 the bees must be moved, and should it not be advisable to 

 adopt the strengthening plan, then move them in the even- 

 ing, or on some rainy day when all are in their hives. 



After they are on the stands in the new location, go to 

 the first hive and blow in smoke at the entrance. After 

 the first two or three puffs, commence to pound with the 

 fist on top of the hive, pounding as you smoke, striking say 

 five or six blows, when you will pass to the next, treating 

 it the same way ; and .so on till 10 to IS have been thus 

 treated. When you have done this, go back to the first one 

 and treat it the same way again, and so on till you have past 

 over the whole number (10 to IS) again. Such treatment 

 will cause them to mark their location over again, but not 

 as fully as will the stormy weather ; and by way of an ad- 

 ditional help, along the marking line, it is well to stand a 

 wide board up in front of the entrance to each hive when 

 you are thru smoking and jarring them. This board should 

 be wide enough so as to darken the entrance to a consider- 

 able extent, and so as to turn the bees to one side when they 

 fly the next time. In this way bees notice at once that 

 something is wrong, which causes them to mark their loca- 

 tion anew ; otherwise some would start off in a straight 

 line as usual, and come back to the old location and be lost. 



The old place should be cleared of everything which 

 would look homelike to the bees, where stormy weather has 

 not prevailed before they were moved, which helps much in 

 the matter. Then, after all, if we go to the old place when 

 the bees first fly, we will find many bees hovering about in 

 spite of all we have done; but after careful watchings for 

 many years, I am satisfied that all such bees finally go back 

 to the new location, if they have been treated as here given. 



PKBVBNTING SPRING DWINDLING. 



" As I understand it, spring- dwindling- comes about bv a bee or two 

 at a time leaving- the hive in unpropitious weather until all are lost. If 

 this is ri^'ht, why can not it be prevented by placing wire-cloth before the 

 entrance to keep'the bees from Hying when the weather is not fit?" 



Answer. — So far as my experience goes, it is never best 

 to confine the bees to the hive by placing wire-cloth over 

 the entrance, except when they are to be moved some dis- 

 tance, or shipt when a sale is made, and in these cases wire- 

 cloth placed only at the entrance often ruins the colony if it 

 be a strong one, where there is necessity for keeping it 

 there more than half an hour or so. The matter seems to 

 be like this : 



When the few bees which act as sentinels go to the en- 

 trance from any cause, and find their exit is cut off, they 

 at once communicate this fact to the rest of the colony, 

 when more bees come to go out, and finding they are not 

 able to do so they begin to bite the wire-cloth, and make a 

 fuss generally, till the whole colony is aroused, and a com- 

 motion caused to such an extent that the meshes of the 

 wire-cloth are clogged with bees so that no air can get 

 thru. When this happens, the bees become very hot, or 

 heated like fermenting vegetation, the honey in their 

 honey-sacs is disgorged till the bees become all wet and 

 daubed, when they perish with a sufficient heat often to 

 melt combs. 



There can be no assurance that this may not happen at 

 any time, unless the weather is so cold that it causes the 

 bees to cluster compactly, and were bees to be shut in hives 

 when so clustered, the apiarist would need to be on hand, 

 when the weather moderated, to take off the wire-cloth, or 

 a loss would occur. I doubt whether there can be any means 

 used in unpropitious weather in the spring by which bees 

 can be kept from flying out of the hive, that will not cost 

 more than the benefit derived will amount to. 



Where bees are in chaff hives they are not so easily en- 

 ticed out every sunshiny day, when the air is too cool for 

 them to fly safely. If a wide board is placed sloping in 

 front of the entrance, so as to exclude the rays of the sun 

 from the entrance and lower part of the hive, bees will not 

 venture out unless the air is warm enough for them to fly 

 safely ; but as these boards have to be removed every time 

 the weather is suitable for the bees to go out, I doubt about 

 enough bees being saved to pay for the trouble. I have 

 practiced this to quite an extent in former years, but of late 

 I do not, because I do not think it pays where a person has 

 much else to do. 



Then, spring dwindling is not the result of a loss of the 



