262 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



to live on. Up to this time I had fed 

 the bees 30 sacks of sugar. 



"Distance lends enchantment" is 

 no doubt a truthful saying when ap- 

 plied to beekeepers upon reading or 

 hearing of good bee ten-itory many 

 miles away. It has always been a 

 fascination to me to read of beekeep- 

 ers harvesting fine crops of honey in 

 the various parts of our country and 

 some of the distant lands. The sea- 

 sons I got fair crops of honey I would 

 not take much interest in the distant 

 bee territory. The poor seasons would 

 always turn my thoughts to far-away 

 localities where I knew good crops 

 of honey had been secured. At such 

 times I read a great deal of what suc- 

 cessful beemen were doing in good 

 localities and studied maps to see just 

 where they were located. My con- 

 stant dream was of a place where 

 good crops could be expected every 

 year. I was told that there were a 

 few such locations. Dreaming of bet- 

 tering our condition does little good 

 until we set about making our di-eams 

 come true. 



All winter I planned and dreamed 

 of moving my bees to a locality where 

 I could be sure of a crop every year. 

 I viTote to nearly everyone that I 

 thought could help me secure such a 

 location. Letters came in reply to 

 my inquiries, telling me of fine unoc- 

 cupied territory in South Dakota. Wy- 

 oming and Nebraska. That spring 

 Mr. Frank C. Pellett was touring 

 Texas, making a study of beekeeping 

 conditions and honey flora. I met 

 him and asked him to tell me what 

 he knew of the different territories 

 under consideration. What he told 

 me helped me in my determination 

 to find a better place. 



My time was short and money 

 scarce, or I would have made a trip 

 to look at a few of the places under 

 consideration. I felt as though I 

 would lose all my bees if I kept them 

 in this country another year. 



At last I decided to locate in 

 northeast Nebraska. The Western 

 Honey Producers, of Sioux City, la., 

 had recommended a basswood-sweet- 

 clover location in the Winnebago In- 

 dian Reservation. 



While I was learning of bee terri- 

 tory I was also doing all I could to 

 get my bees built up and in shape to 

 move. A light flow of honey saved 

 the day and I was able to rear good 

 queens and increase my bees to .315 

 colonies. My hives were 10-frame 

 and, in preparing the bees for ship- 



ment, I stapled on the bottom-boards 

 and pushed seven combs to one side 

 and nailed the outside comb to hold 

 all combs in place. This allowed the 

 bees a clustering space where the 

 three combs were missing. A screen 

 was nailed on and the cover put on 

 and left until the bees were hauled to 

 the railroad. Several of my bee- 

 keeper friends, who had experience in 

 shipping cars of bees cautioned me 

 not to ship heavy combs of honey in 

 my colonies. They ai-gued that heavy 

 combs would most likely break down 

 in moving and, as the bees would 

 be on the road only a few days, little 

 honey would be needed. To my sor- 

 row I followed their advice. 



First of all I hauled in all supers 

 and supplies not in use, and last of 

 all I hauled in the bees. The apiaries 

 were located from ten to eighteen 

 miles away. All the hauling was 

 done with a Ford roadster with a 

 truck body on it. Only small loads 

 could be hauled and many trips were 

 necessary. 



E. R. Jones, bee inspector of Bee 

 County, made a set of racks out of 

 seven-eighths by one and one-half 

 inch strips to fit in a stock car. These 

 i-acks were very light in weight and 

 allowed the hives to be pushed in be- 

 tween two racks, just as drawers slide 

 into a wardrobe. This is the sim- 

 plest, cheapest and best method that 

 I know of. Mr. Jones had superin- 

 tended the loading of four cars of 

 bees and all went through without 

 breaking down. 



I started loading the car on Friday 

 and put in and secured, in their 

 places, supers, covers and other sup- 

 plies; then the Ford. On Saturday 

 the bees were put in. The car was 

 not loaded in time to be picked up by 

 the train it should have gone out on. 

 The next morning was very warm and 

 I filled my water barrel and then 

 sprayed the car and bees, to cool 

 them. 



About 5 o'clock p. m., May 19, I 

 was picked up by a northbound 

 freight and started on my l,200iTiile 

 journey to an unknown country. I 

 supposed that I would be enroute five 

 days, but did not arrive at my desti- 

 nation until 3 a. m., Sunday, May 26. 

 I was supposed to be traveling on a 

 fast freight, but it was too slow to 

 carry bees on in warm weather. 



I made it a rule to get out of the 

 car each time we came to the end of 

 a run and hunt up the yardmaster and 

 ask him to see that my car was not 



'1 he bn> loaded on tiiicks at llic cud of the long journey. 



delayed in getting out of the yards on 

 the next train. One time the train 

 was going out without my car. I 

 asked the different train crews to 

 bump my car as little as possible, and 

 explained to them that if the car was 

 hit hard bees would probably get out 

 and sting everybody. As a rule the 

 ear was handled carefully. 



Several times each day I sprayed 

 the bees and also threw water on the 

 the car ceiling and floor to lower the 

 temperature. I found that bees 

 should have very little water sprayed 

 over them at a time. A good deal of 

 time was spent trying to keep the 

 bees cool and watching for hives 

 whose bottoms were worked loose. 

 The staples that are listed in every 

 bee supply catalog and sold to fasten 

 bottom-boards to hives are not good 

 for a long trip. The vibrating of the 

 car kept working staples loose, while 

 a few bottoms nailed on with. 7- 

 penny nails held. A hive with a loose 

 bottom I had to slide out of the rack 

 and re-nail. 



The weather was not overly warm, 

 but the bees were in a constant up- 

 roar on cool nights. When the car 

 was stopped in a freight yard, in the 

 sun, the bees became greatly exciied. 

 Wetting the car thoroughly helped 

 quiet them. This continued excite- 

 ment caused them to consume a great 

 amount of stores. On the fifth day 

 I found several colonies had starved, 

 and about twenty starved by the time 

 the trip was completed. The colonies 

 averaged four combs of brood upon 

 being loaded, but nearly every colony 

 had eaten all of its combs of brood 

 by the time they were unloaded. The 

 few colonies that were heavy with 

 honey came through in the best condi- 

 tion. 



The bees were unloaded near the 

 railroad at Winnebago and allowed to 

 fly. I bought a sack of sugar and 

 for several days fed each colony a 

 little syrup through the top screen. 

 As I arrived after dandelion and 

 fruit bloom, no honey was coming in, 

 and the bees had to be fed till the 

 10th of June. 



A large tract of basswood timber, 

 two miles east of town, was selected 

 and the bees moved there. Upon go- 

 ing through the bees, I found nearly 

 fifty queenless colonies, many of 

 which had developed laying workers. 

 These queenless colonies I united 

 with queenright colonies. Had I or- 

 dered some queens and had them ar- 

 rive a week later than I arrived, 

 many colonies could have been saved. 

 Most of the bees had worn themselves 

 out in the excitement of being moved, 

 and hardly enough bees remained to 

 care for the new brood. I made ev- 

 ery effort to get each colony ready for 

 the honey flow, which local beekeep- 

 ers said would start about June 20, 

 from white sweet clover, to be fol- 

 lowed by basswood early in July. 

 These flows arrived on schedule time, 

 but were preceded by a light flow 

 from yellow sweet clover. The bees 

 were not built up to strong colonies 

 till basswood was thi'ough yielding 

 nectar, and as most of the sweet clo- 

 ver was growing along the roadside 

 and not cultivated, it soon w?nt to 



