THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



55 



utilizing this wax it is wasted. Witli 

 his system of management, this invol- 

 untarily secreted wax is used in build- 

 ing comb below the brood nest. With 

 the ordinary hives and management, 

 wax may be produced in quantit3', 

 where the apiary is managed for the 

 production of extracted honey, by 

 always having some empty frames in 

 which the bees can build combs. Mr. 

 Simmins says that one pound of wax, 

 costing about 30 cents, as it is secreted 

 by the bees and by them built into 

 combs, will fill eight brood frames; 

 one pound of foundation will cost 40 or 

 50 cts., and to this the bees may add 

 considerable of their own production 

 before the combs are completed. Here 

 is a point well worth considering. 



SPECIALTY VERSUS MIXED BEE-KEEPING. 



In closing his book Mr. Simmins 

 makes a special plea for mixed bee- 

 keeping. He says "Shall your occu- 

 pation be bees alone ? No ! Poultry 

 alone ? NEVER ! Fruit alone? Well 

 hardly." Then he goes on and urges 



the keeping of bees, poultry, and cows, 

 the raising of fruit and the cultivation 

 of a garden. As I said at the outset, 

 such a course may be best for Mr. 

 Siinmins, with his surroundings, and 

 it is possible that it may be best for 

 some bee-keepers here in this country, 

 tor those, if any there are, who can't 

 branch out and keep more bees, but for 

 most of us I think such a plan far less 

 profitable and desirable than specialty. 

 Suppose a man has 50 colonies of bees. 

 He finds that he has time to do more 

 work than is required by these 50 

 colonies, and he adds 50 hens. Now, 

 let me ask, instead of adding the 

 poultry, why not add another 50 col- 

 onies of bees ? If the man with the 50 

 colonies, who has added the 50 hens, 

 still finds time hanging on his hands, 

 he can add a cow and a garden, but 

 why not add another 50 colonies of 

 bees ? If the locality becomes over- 

 stocked, then why not establish an out- 

 apiary ? A man should exhaust the 

 posibilities of one business before tak- 

 ing up another. 



MOVING BEES SHORT DISTANCES. 



it is Easily Accomplished with Small Loss 

 of Bees if You Only Know How. 



It frequently happens that it is nec- 

 essary, or desirable, to move an 

 apiary a short distance, so short a 

 distance that it is not beyond the range 

 of flight to which the bees are accus- 

 tomed, and, unless certain precautions 

 are observed, there may be some loss 

 of bees, or depletion of some hives to 

 the overflowing of others. The great 

 point is to move the whole apiary at 

 one time — but I won't tell the man's 

 story so long as I am going to let him 

 tell it himself. His name is C. F. 

 Bender, he lives in Illinois, and he told 

 his story in Gleanings, and here it is: — 



I see so many questions asked in re- 

 gard to moving bees that I thought I 

 should like to give my experience in 

 that line. While the requirements are 

 simple, yet some of them are frequently 

 overlooked, and a failure is the result. 

 In the last seven years I have moved 

 five whole apiaries for myself and 

 others, the distance in every case being 

 under a mile. Two of the apiaries 

 were my own, consisting of a hundred 

 colonies, and were moved a little over 

 fifty 3'ards, in warm weather. In all 

 this number, less than a gallon of bees 

 went back to the old stands. 



I think March is the best month in the 

 year for moving an apiary. If you 

 have work of this kind to do, put it off 

 until winter if 3'ou can If you are 

 obliged to change the location in warm 

 weather, leave the hive-entrances open 

 while on the road. This may seem 

 like a dangerous matter to one who 

 has never tried it; but if the road isn't 



