1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



3ir 



my friend's house in the neighboring village. 

 At three in the afternoon I began to prepare my 

 colonies for the journey. This I did in this 

 way: I (irst turned over one hive after another. 

 You remember the hive I use is the old straw 

 skep, but larger, and furnished with Id frames, 

 nearly the size of your Langstroth frame. The 

 next thing I did was to convince myself, by 

 looking into the hive, whether the combs were 

 fast in the frames or shaky. In this case a 

 wooden stick, ^^ of an inch thick, was thrust 

 into the space between the combs and into the 

 wall of the hive, giving the combs a sufficient 

 support: but as the combs are mostly built fast 

 in the frames, very few sticks are nec(>ssary — in 

 most of the hives, not any. When I see, by 

 peeping into the hive, that all is right, 1 take a 

 closely woven cloth, lay it over the opening of 

 the hive, and tack the four ends to the hive 

 with wire nails, or use a cord and tie the cloth 

 to the hive, as you see in the engraving. Then 

 I replace the closed hive on its stand. The bees 

 which take wing on account of preparing the 

 hive for the migration, or which flew off on ac- 

 count of the smoker, etc., will now enter the 

 hive, as the fly-hole is not covered by the cloth. 



After our arrival at the place of destination 

 the hives were set in the bee-house on shelves, 

 the moss in the entrances was pulled out, and 

 the job was done. We bade farewell to our col- 

 onies, and went home. This was on the (ith of 

 May; and as the weather was very fine for our 

 bees on the following days, I hoped they would 

 do very well. On the !)Lh of May I made up my 

 mind to go and see what my colonies were do- 

 ing. Before sunrise I was in the company of 

 my bee-friend. The first thing now to be done 

 was to take off the cloths from the hives, to see 

 how it was with my bees. On turning over the 

 first hive I was aware that the bees must have 

 done their utmost, as the hive had a respecta- 

 ble weight. So it was. After removing the 

 cloths I found that all was well. Not one comb 

 was injured. There was nothing to do with 

 the bees. Half an hour's work, and I knew all 

 about every colony. Remembfr, friend Root, 

 that all this was possible only because I always 

 handle hives more than frames. I had scarcely 

 ended my review when the bees began their 

 flight. My friend and I stood aside, seeing our 

 bees work. 



"Well, my friend," said I, "it matters not 



HOW THEY MOVE E 



At five o'clock all was done. Then it took 

 scarcely five minutes to prepare my hives for 

 the migration. The cartman with his team 

 and the bee-wagon had in due time arrived; 

 and as soon as the bees had ceased to fly I would 

 give a wliitt' of smoke into the entrance, caus- 

 ing the bees to go into the hive. I had, ready 

 some wet moss to close the entrances of the 

 hives. After this was done the hives were plac- 

 ed on the wagon and stowed away, head down 

 and cloth up. just as you see it done in the en- 

 graving. On such a wagon I load (K) or more of 

 my movable-comb hives. 



Now began the journey. It is an old prac- 

 tice of our wandering bee-keepers, after a five- 

 minutes' passage to come to a standstill for five- 

 minutes, in order to give the bees a chance to 

 come to themselves again. They are then more 

 quiet during the journey, for then they do not 

 cause too much heat. 



EES IN GERMANY. 



that .Jack Frost has shown us his face by dam- 

 aging our bilberry-blossoms. If we have only 

 two more days like the last ones, we'll thank 

 him for his trick." 



Till the Kith of May we had very fine weath- 

 er; but then the joy had an end; and as cold 

 and windy weather set in, and tiie time of 

 blooming of the rape was over, we hauh^d our 

 bees home. 



Would not every day that we arrived later in 

 the rape- field have been a great loss? Does 

 this not show how important it is to be at the 

 right place at the right time? and whatagi'eat 

 boon migratory bee-keeping can be? I extract- 

 ed nearly 150 lbs. of fine rape honey; and not 

 only this. 40 colonies had enough honey and 

 pollen for brood-rearing; but I could also fur- 

 nish other colonies with this new honey. 



I should not have had such success if the 

 frost had not destroyed the bilberry-blossoms. 



