494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



and the fact of the widely scattered regions of 

 its appearance would seem to refute the poison 

 theory. Yet I would suggest that all who suf- 

 fer from this malady inquire and see if spraying 

 with poisons has been practiced in their locali- 

 ties. One gentleman writes me that he saw it 

 ten years ago, and changed the queen, and 

 health was restored. He found it again last 

 year, and now it appears again, worse than 

 last season. This experience would seem hard- 

 ly in accord with the poisoning hypothesis. I 

 should like to hear from all who have noticed 

 this disease. I think it is a fungoid malady. I 

 shall try to get time to investigate it. If it is a 

 case of poisoning, then the microbe which is 

 causing the decay will be the common one of 

 putrefaction— BttCtci-iu/Ji termo, and can easily 

 be identified. ^ 



Claremont, Cal. 



^ I ^ 



MIGRATORY BEE-KEEPING IN GERMANY. 



CONCLUDED FKOM APKIL 15X11 IS.SUK. 



By C. J. H. Gravenhorst . 



In my previous article I told you, Mr. Root, 

 how I move around with my colonies in the 

 spri7iq. However, a migration at this time will 

 be nothing to one in the month of July and 

 August, especially if the combs in the hives are 

 new ones or do not fill up the frames. The 

 weather in the spring is cool; the combs are a 

 year old or more, and the colonies are not so 

 populous as in mid -summer. 



Living in a part of Germany 

 where, in most years, the honey- 

 flow is over by the first week of 

 July, or, at least, it is then not 

 half so good as in the buck- 

 wheat-fields and the heath of 

 the province of Hannover, I soon 

 found out that it would pay to 

 go thither with the bees eveiy 

 year in the beginning of July 

 and August. Thirty miles from 

 my home, in the neighborhood 

 of the city of Celle, near the vil- 

 lage of Ummern, I rented two 

 places, and there built two bee- 

 houses, one in the midst of the 

 buckwheat- fields, and one on 

 the border of the large heath- 

 plains, where the Erica vulgaris 

 abounds. These houses were 

 built as the engraving shows, only a little larg- 

 er, each for 70 to 80 hives. To illustrate my 

 migration in mid-summer, let me tell you an- 

 other episode. 



One summer during tlie first days of July, 

 the farmer of whom I had rented the two places 

 for my bee-houses in Ummern, sent me a few 

 lines. He said to me, "On the 9th or 10th of 

 July the first blossoms of buckwheat will be 

 open." 



I know by experience that it is always better 

 to be in season with the bees before or just aft- 

 er the blossoms of buckwheat begin to open; 

 for otherwise, if in full bloom, the bees get 

 drunk from the fresh honey of the buckwheat, 

 and perish then, in consequence of which the- 

 hives become depopulated. All this is avoided 

 if the bee gets accustomed to the honey by lit- 

 tle and little. I therefore immediately com- 

 menced with the preparations for the migra- 

 tion. The lindens (basswood) and other plants- 

 had yielded a very good crop. I had already 

 extracted several thousand pounds of the nicest 

 honey, and my colonies had only enough 

 honey left to prevent starvation in the buck- 

 wheat-fields, if bad weather should set in. 

 Most of the hives were brimful of bees, and had 

 also much brood. 



The principal work I had to do was to pre- 

 pare my colonies in such a way that they would 

 not swarm in the buckwheat; otherwise I 

 should be obliged to watch them day by day, 

 as those bee-keepers must do who do not have 

 movable-comb hives. This I could and would 

 not do. In the first years of my migrations to 

 the buckwheat I had no other chance to be 

 present to catch and hive the swarms. That 

 was very expensive. Later I found a way to 

 prevent swarming at this time. Those colonies 

 having a young queen, and not too many bees 

 and brood for the size of my hives, I was sure 

 would not swarm; but most of those colonies 

 with queens one or more years old would send 



GRAVENHORST'S out-apiary RErOSITORV. 



out one or more swarms, especially if the weath- 

 er was not very favorable for gathc ring honey. 

 To avoid the swarming of colonies that had 

 young queens and too many bees and too much 

 brood in proportion to the size of the hive, I 

 took out one, two, or more combs of sealed 

 brood, so as to let the colonies remain in work- 

 ing order. The brood-combs, I put. into those 

 hives that would be built up more therewith. 

 To fill the places of the brood-combs, I inserted 



