620 



July 19, 1906 



American Itee Journal 



Convention ^ 

 Proceedings 



NATIONAL AT CHICAGO 



Report of the 36th Annual Convention of the 



National Bee-Keepers' Association, held In 



Chicago, 111., Dec. 19, 20 and 21, 1905 



[Continued from page 601.] 



Pres. Dadant — We will now take up the next subject 

 by Mr. Holtermann, of Canada. 



MIGRATORY BEE-KEEPING 



Mr. Holtermann — As to migratory bee-keeping, there are 

 those who carry it on in one sense, and, again, others who 

 carry it on in another sense. I may say I have read more or 

 less of the European bee-literature with profit, and in Eu- 

 rope migratory bee-keeping, the moving about from one 

 section to another has been carried on to a greater extent 

 than upon the continent, and I believe it is a line in which 

 we can receive instruction from others; and after receiving 

 hints and suggestions we can get from Europe, with all due 

 respect to European bee-keepers, we in this country can im- 

 prove upon their method as a rule, because we are practical 

 to a greater extent. 



First of all comes the question whether it shall be carried 

 on at all or not. In my estimation every specialist should 

 in a sense carry on bee-keeping in that way. Unless it be 

 in a section of country foreign in nature entirely to my own 

 and that which I find in the Northern States, no specialist 

 should create permanent large apiaries to any extent. I find 

 conditions vary from year to year so much that it is de- 

 sirable for one who makes a special business of bee-keeping 

 to be able to go to favored localities. 



In our Province the year before this the clover was 

 largely killed out ; it had been killed out by thaws, snow and 

 rain, and then the freezing in of the clover and smothering. I 

 had intended to go to a certain section. I had my super-combs ar- 

 ranged for that purpose and I found out by going to a section of 

 country where there was very rolling land I could get a 

 fairly good clover locality, whilst if I had remained in the 

 territory which I originally intended and had before gone 

 into I would have had no clover surplus at all. 



Again, you know the rainfalls vary in every locality. 

 Even within a few miles you can go and get quite a differ- 

 ence as far as rainfalls go. In the heavy clay lands, if in the 

 early part of the season, you get a shortage of rainfalls ; it 

 takes more rain to bring that ground into condition for 

 yielding honey then it does upon the lighter soils ; and one 

 should be always ready to pack up and go from one section 

 to another. 



Again, I find if you get into a section of country where 

 there are good early flows, that then you can not in that 

 same section get good and heavy late flows, and for that 

 reason for the specialist, if he can move an ordinary distance, 

 say 40 miles, he can secure a larger yield, and in that case 

 I would advocate the moving about of the bees. Each per- 

 son must decide for himself after studying up the condi- 

 tions, whether he shall practice this system of bee-keeping or 

 not. To a certain extent, it is his own business as to* 

 whether he shall practice it or not, but it is everybody's busi- 

 ness as to hozv he shall practice that. We have had some 

 discussions in our American bee-literature as to the advisa- 

 bility of moving bees when the hives, are open; and I feel 

 very strongly upon this subject, as to whether he shall do it 

 or not ; and I do not hesitate to say, after years of pretty 

 extensive experience in moving bees, that it is a very great 

 mistake to attempt to move bees with open hives. You know 

 that as far as bees are concerned, they rarely do any harm 

 as far as life is concerned; that if anywhere upon this con- 

 tinent a life is lost through the stinging of the bee, it passes 

 through the whole press of this continent ; whilst with other 



live stock there are so many accidents happen, and they are 

 so common, that the incident is not mentioned, or is only of 

 local interest. 



Now, I know what I am talking about, because my 

 system gives me a chance to know just what bees will do as 

 to coming in and out of an entrance. I am willing to admit, 

 if you get your bees started safely and are on the move, 

 the bees are not likely to come out. But I also know that 

 you never know at what moment you may have to stop, and 

 then, when you start again, you do not know whether you are 

 going to get into trouble or not. 



I have a permanent portico upon this hive; it may be 

 attached to any hive. At the entrance of my hive a screen 

 is slid down in front, and I know just exactly how the bees 

 will act when the entrance is open, or is not open. When 

 we first start the bees will come out ; they pass really out 

 of the hive and come to the entrance and will circle about 

 in the screen, in that portico, depending upon the temperature 

 and strength of the bees, and so on ; they will either stay 

 there or go in again; and you can go along the road and see, 

 perhaps, sometimes, no bees outside of the hive; but you 

 stop, and then jar your wagon, or whatever you have, and 

 start up again, and that is the time when the bees come out 

 and the time that the danger exists. Now, in moving bees 

 we want to have everything arranged as expeditiously as 

 possible ; we want to be able to pack up and move at any time, 

 and the device I have at the front of the hive is with that 

 object in view. I have found the matter of screening bees 

 in the hive, or by having screens above or below, is 

 a very different thing in principle, to having a screen 

 out at the front, the way I have it. When the hive is 

 barred, the bees can come out of the entrance ; they don't 

 seem to feel the confinement in the hive and they act in a 

 different way from what they do if the screen is close to the 



B. F. HOLTEKMANN. 



brood-chambers. With the ordinary entrance the bees in 

 their efforts to get out, pack against that screening and 

 shut off ventilation. In this system, when we are going to 

 move, we put on the screens during the daytime and the 

 earliest moment at which you can get away in the evening 



