1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



165 



Moving Bees, Etc. 



BY CHAS. H. THIES. 



From the number of inquiries in re- 

 gard to moving bees that I have re- 

 ceived of late, I am led to believe 

 that thousands of bee-keepers are 

 comparatively young in bee-keeping 

 knowledge, and although one would 

 think ihat this had been thoroughly 

 absorbed many times, there are those 

 who have fallen in line later, who 

 have not yet been educated. There 

 are thousands of bee-keepers who 

 have never read a bee -paper, these 

 are from time to time becoming sub- 

 scribers for some bee-journal, and 

 should have the same chances we had 

 when we began. Have just had a 

 little experience in moving a number 

 of colonies late last evening. They 

 were only moved about a mile and 

 one half over fairly good roads and did 

 not require a great deal of prepara- 

 tion. All I did was to tack a strip of 

 wire screening over the entrance, then 

 we proceeded to lead them, but be 

 sure that you are more careful than I 

 was in this case, and see that there are 

 no other openings in the hive or cot- 

 torn board that will leak bees. These 

 bees were unloaded at their destina- 

 tion and left closed up until next 

 evening, when they were liberated an 

 hour or two before sun down, after 

 first thoroughly shaking them up. 

 Although at this distance, 1^ miles, I 

 expect a number of bees to return to 

 the old location, and to save their re- 

 turning, I placed where the hive stood 

 a small Nuclei hive with combs in 

 them, these will again be taken away 

 and kept confined for two days, when 

 there will be very few to return. 

 When the distance is greater, say 3 

 miles or more, no bee will return. In 



mooving bees this time of year, when 

 the old bees are about all gone and 

 the colony consists chiefly of young 

 "bees, there will not be many bees re- 

 turn to the old location. These bees 

 were in a location where they were 

 continually tampered with, which 

 made it necessary to moove them. 

 To moove bees only a short distance, 

 say a few feet or rods as many do in 

 the spring, all that will be necessary 

 is to moove them a little at a time, the 

 first two or three moves to be very lit- 

 tle, after that the bees become accus- 

 tomed to the moove, and a greater 

 moove can be made. In uniting, 

 moove the colonies close together, 

 cage the queen you wish to remain 

 and destroy the other, and proceed 

 with the caged queen similar to the 

 one you are introducing. Many pay 

 no attention to the queens in uniting, 

 but allow the bees to take their choice 

 or the queens to fight it out, but 

 occasionally both queens are lost by 

 this method. 

 Steeleville, 111. 



The Two-Fold Mission of 

 the Bee. 



BY THE ASSISTANT EDITOR. 



In contemplating the advantages of 

 keeping bees it too frequently occurs 

 that the commercial value of apiary 

 products forms the sole basis of com- 

 putation, while the infinitely greater 

 wealth which is derived indirectly 

 through their work is entirely disre- 

 garded. 



As an illustration of the important 

 office which the bees serve, as a fe- 

 cundating agent, in the floral world, 

 we quote the following, by W. H. 

 Gibson , from the Cosmopolitan maga- 

 zine; who, in speaking of red clover, 

 says: 



