For the American Bee Journal. 



Moving Bees, Extracted Honey, &c. 



BY WM. CAMM. 



Moving from Iron comity, Mo., last 

 October, I shipped 13 colonies of blacks 

 and hybrids by rail. One got a heavy 

 fall, and after looking into that one 

 and finding it all right, I concluded the 

 rest certainly were uninjured, so stuck 

 them in a row two deep at the east end 

 of a building, with a fence on the north, 

 and packed straw behind, between and 

 over them. The winter was so mild 

 that the bees were out more or less 

 every week. I set them out in March, 

 as they had been working on soft ma- 

 ple from Feb. 28th, and upon opening 

 the hives found several with combs 

 wholly or partially broken out of the 

 frames, and several robbed to death, 

 leaving me with but 6 strong colonies 

 and one weak one ; traded for 5, bought 

 1, and a tine swarm of wild bees passing 

 over my hives we invited to stay, and 

 they stayed. Increased from colonies 

 on hand in the spring to 15. Com- 

 menced last spring with a new double- 

 walled hive, that was a cube of 13| 

 inches inside brood-chamber, and held 

 10 frames 12x12 inches in the clear in- 

 side. Found combs more liable to sag 

 and break out, so cut two inches off the 

 bottom of my frames, and made the rest 

 of my hives 12 inches deep, and like 

 them better. Shall extract yet this fall 

 as soon as I can afford to get an extrac- 

 tor, and to the return sent herewith, 

 might safely be added 100 lbs. extracted 

 and 200 lbs. comb honey. Used 5x6 

 inch sections, 3-comb box a cube of 6 

 inches, and 3-comb boxes, 6x6 inches 

 square and 12 inches Jong. After this, 

 or next year at least, shall run nearly 

 all for extracted honey; but for comb 

 I want only section boxes, both 1 and 2 

 lb. Use them in trays or racks, that 

 hold 21 of the 5x6 sections. If the slats 

 in the bottom of the rack are as wide 

 as bottoms of the sections, and run 

 lengthwise, so three sections rest on 

 one slat, the sections can be kept as clean 

 and neat as though put in larger frames 

 and hung in the hive. 



White clover came in about May 21, 

 and was abundant till after the middle 

 of July ; nor was it the " off year" for 

 basswood here. From several colonies 

 I took two racks of 21 sections each of 

 white clover honey, and they now have 

 their third racks nearly full of buck- 

 wheat, as very few fall blossoms are 

 open yet. 



Some of my hives have holes bored 

 through the bottom-board and covered 

 with wire-cloth ; one has a hole 6 inches 

 square under the hive, and all ventila- 



ted below have ample ventilation above, 

 while some of the hives have no venti- 

 lation at all, except the entrance, I inch 

 deep, nearly the width of the hive, and 

 these do just as well as any, or better. 

 Hives are only partially shaded, and 

 when the mercury is up among the 

 nineties, it is still warmer in the hive, 

 and when business is dull they will hang 

 out in great numbers, though their 

 boxes may not be half full. I raised 

 two hives on i inch blocks, but it did no 

 good, rather harm, for more moth- 

 worms have been in them than in any 

 other hives. Bees work on buckwheat 

 only in the forenoon, unless it is a very 

 moist day, or the wheat is on a very 

 steep northern hillside, as some of mine 

 is. The wild swarm, above mentioned, 

 came along the day I got my July num- 

 ber of the Journal. My wife ran out 

 with a looking-glass, and not knowing 

 how to use it, she flashed it among 

 the whirling bees, and then upon a 

 low, shaded branch of an oak that 

 stood among the hives. They soon be- 

 gan to cluster where the bright reflec- 

 tion was thrown, the shade making it 

 bright by contrast, and then she kept 

 the light on the branch till most of the 

 bees had clustered. I did not under- 

 stand it at the time, but that evening, 

 while reading the Journal, a bee got 

 into the house and buzzed about the 

 lamp, and I got the idea. 



I made my increase by artificial 

 swarming, but a day or two after the 

 above occurrence, a very large natural 

 swarm unexpectedly came out. I 

 pointed out a certain branch, and told 

 Mrs. C. to put them on that, and flash- 

 ing the glass as before, in five minutes 

 they were on the very branch that I had 

 selected. No other opportunities were 

 given for experimenting, but I mention 

 it thus at some length that others may 

 also try it next season. 



A swarm of hybrids left, a few days 

 ago, when no one was at home. 



My colonies are very strong, but they 

 are getting their brood-comb sadly filled 

 up with honey. They do not seem to be 

 able to build comb as fast as they do 

 earlier in the season, yet bring in honey 

 in abundance. 



At a rough estimate, there are about 

 300 colonies in this county, in all sorts 

 of hives, but mostly old-fashioned box 

 hives. Several have 50 or 60 colonies, 

 but beyond the number of bees, and the 

 fact that all winter on summer stands, 

 rearing perhaps a little corn-fodder over 

 them, nothing definite could be gath- 

 ered. The country was almost alive 

 with wild bees in swarming season. 



There is a good deal of second-crop 

 white clover, but I do not see that the 



