Migratory System of Bee-keeping. 



A letter from one of our subscribers in 

 Louisiana informs us tliat lie intends to 

 make a "new departure" in the manage- 

 ment of his apiary. When, in the natural 

 course of events, the early bloom of tiiat 

 locality is nearly exhausted, he intends to 

 place one thousand colonies of bees on a 

 barge on the Mississippi River, and 

 by means of a small steam tug boat, 

 follow the bloom up the river, and thus 

 procure perpetual iioney-gathering. How- 

 ever new this migratory system of bee- 

 keeping may be for this country, in the 

 history of the World it is no new thing. In 

 proof of this, we will submit some interest- 

 ing statements from an English work on 

 apiculture. 



In many countries, the removal of the 

 liives from one pasturage to another is con- 

 sidered as a very important branch in the 

 practical management of the apiary. Sava- 

 ry, in his " Letters on Egypt," enters into 

 a long detail of the manner in which the 

 inhabitants of that country transport their 

 hives along the banks of the Nile, and says: 



"The Egyptians exhibit great skill in 

 their manner of cultivating the bee, as the 

 ilnwers and the harvest are much earlier in 

 Upper Egypt than in Lower, and the inhab- 

 itants profit by this circumstance in regard 

 to their bees. They collect the hives of 

 different villages on large barks, and every 

 proprietor attaches a particular mark to his 

 liives; when the boat is loaded, the con- 

 ductors descend the river slowly, stopping 

 at all the places where they can find pastur- 

 age for the bees. After having thus spent 

 three months on the Nile, the hives are 

 returned to the projirietor, and after deduct- 

 ing a small sum due to the boatman for 

 liaving conducted his hives from one end of 

 Egypt to the other, he finds himself on a 

 sudden enriched with a (luantity of honey 

 and wax, which is immediately sent to the 

 market. This species of industry jirocures 

 for the Egyptians an abundance of wax and 

 honey, and enables them to export a consid- 

 erable quantity to foreign countries." 



M. Maillet, in his "History of Egypt," 

 also makes mention of this custom relative 

 to the pasture of the bees. 



It is the custom of tlie modern Greeks, 

 who inliabit the coast of Asia Minor, 

 toward the islands of Archipelago, to trans- 

 port their hives by sea, in order to procure 

 an abundance of" food for their bees. A 

 similar practice is also adopted in China; 

 but "'the celestials," of all people in the 

 world, are the most ignorant in the manage- 

 ment of the bee. Of its natural history, 

 theiy know less than the savages of Africa; 

 they consider themselves very wise in 

 knowing that the bees make honey and 

 wax, but as to any further research into 

 their historj% it is beneath the notice of 

 such celestial beings. 



A very ingenious method is practiced by 

 the people who inhabit the banks of the Po, 

 in regard to the transportation of their 

 hives. They load the boats according to the 

 manner of the Egyptians, and then trans- 

 port the hives to the vicinity of the mount- 

 ains of Piedmont. On their departure, a 

 line is marked out around the boat, from 

 which a scale is drawn, and as the bees 

 collect the honey, the boat sinks deeper 

 into the water; thus, by looking at the 

 .scale, the boatmen know when the bees 

 have gathered a sufficiency of honey, and 

 they then prepare for their return. 



Alexandre de Montfort relates, that the 

 people in the vicinity of Juliers generally 

 convey their hives to the foot of the mount- 

 ains when the wild thyme is in flower. 



M. Valmont de Boniare, in his Dictionary, 

 observes : " Great is the advantage of 

 being in the vicinity of a navigable river, 

 for by these means, the spring of a dry 

 country can be united with the autumn of "a 

 fertile and umbrageous one. and i hereby 

 ample amends be made for the poverty of 

 the country in which the apiarist may be 

 established. 



M. I'Abbe Tessier, Prontant, and others, 

 inform us, that the proprietors of the bees 

 in Ija Beauce transport their hives every 

 year in the month of Auiiust, in carts, into 

 the country of the Gatinois, or to the envi- 

 rons of the forest of Orleans, about the 

 distance of 10 miles from their habitation. — 

 They find heath or buckwheat in flower at 

 a time when in La Beauce, after the gather- 

 ing of the sainfoin and the vetches, no 

 further addition can be made by the bees to 

 their winter store. 



This manner of transporting the bees is 

 called, in the country, leading them to pns- 

 tiii'e. A single cart contains thirty or forty 

 hives. They travel only during the night, 

 and at a foot-pace, and as much as possible 

 on sandy roads. The hives are covei'ed 

 with linen, and are arranged in stories; 

 those of the upper being reversed between 

 those of the lower story. They remain 

 about two months in the place of their 

 pasturage. The peasants take care of them 

 for a very trifling salary. In this season 

 nearly .3,000 strong hives are seen at a little 

 village. 



when the hives are to be transported, 

 they are placed in the evening on a linen 

 cloth, in which they are wrapped, and tied 

 round with bands of straw, osier, or pack- 

 thread. Two men can carry several hives 

 by passing a long stick through the knot of 

 the cloth which covers them. They are 

 thus often packed on horses or mules. If 

 they be placed in the common way, that is, 

 on their bottom, they must be raised and 

 sustained at the height of some inches, 

 especially if the journey be of some length; 

 for it is necessary that the bees should be 

 ableto imbibe a renovated air. The swarms 

 which have been newly hived may remain 

 in this state 2 or 3 days. In cold weather, 

 the hives, full of wax," honey and bees, may 

 be tian^i)orted to any distance, by taking 

 care only that the combs do not break one 

 against the other; for this purpose they are 

 supported with little sticks. 



To these details of M. I'Abbe Tessier, we 

 will add some not less interesting, extracted 

 from the Dictionary of M. Bomare: " The 



