66 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



March 



those from the first hive are beginning 

 to return. The result is that the bees 

 join forces and "follow my leader" 

 into the first hive. First carry out one 

 colony and place it at the further end 

 of the yard; put the next in the oppo- 

 site corner, the next in another corner, 

 the fourth in the last corner, then put 

 one in the center. Continue to thus 

 scatter them about the yard as much 

 as possible untill a dozen or such a 

 matter are carried out. Now take a 

 rest of perhaps an hour and allow 

 these colonies to get over their "rush" 

 and quiet down, when another dozen 

 may be carried out, care being exer- 

 cised to scatter them as before. If the 

 work is then postponed until another 

 suitable day, when another two dozen 

 may be carried out, it will be all right. 

 Many put great stress upon putting 

 each colony back upon the same stand 

 that it occupied the previous season, 

 but I have never seen any necessity 

 for so doing. It is possible that a few 

 of the bees do remember the old 

 locations, but not enough so but what 

 they will sometimes mix up terribly, 

 even if placed upon their old stands, 

 while if the above precautions be ob- 

 served there will be very little miss- 

 ing, even if the matter of where they 

 set last year is wholly disregarded. 



If it is far to carry the bees the 

 labor may be yearly lessened by two 

 persons engaging in the work, carry- 

 ing three or four hives between them 

 on a hand barrow. If each stock of 

 four or five hives is piled up in the 

 cellar independent of the others, only 

 the bees in the few hives will be dis- 

 turbed at the same time, and if the 

 cellar door is kept closed as much as 

 possible a part of the bees can be car- 

 ried out at one time without disturb- 



ing the others very much. I prefer to 

 shut the bees in the hive before car- 

 rying them from the cellar as those 

 that fly from the hive are usually lost; 

 not only this but they are often a great 

 annoyance by flying about and some- 

 times stinging if possible. In carry- 

 ing the hives out it is will to so plan 

 that there will be as little as possible 

 of walking past a colony that is in the 

 beginning of its full flight. 



After a colony has had a good flight 

 contract the entrance to such a capaci- 1 

 ty as to allow only one or two bees to 

 pass at the same time. This will help 

 to retain the heat and more important 

 still will prevent trouble from robbers. 



Don't open any hives for several 

 days after taking them out. Wait 

 until the bees have recovered from 

 their excitement and settled down and 

 the queens commenced laying. An 

 earlier disturbance often causes the 

 bees to " ball " and kill their queens. 

 As soon as it is safe look them over, 

 equalize stores and unite any queen- 

 less colony with some weak colony 

 having a queen. 



Flint, Mich., Feb. 14, 1897. 



Marking Location, Etc. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes thus: "I 

 winter my bees in the cellar and have 

 always supposed that in putting them 

 out it was best to set each colony oi 

 the stand they occupied before, or a| 

 least I used to read that this must M 

 so or else the bees would return tc 

 their old location, and a general mij 

 up and loss would occur. Having 

 many now it is quite a job to keej 

 track of them so as to put each where 

 it was before putting in the cellar] 

 hence I wish to know if it will do, unJ 



