920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec 15. 



old farmhouse on the left, an orchard and api- 

 ary back of it, and in the distance a river, ap- 

 parently the Thames, winds along. Here Mr. 

 Hill began apiculture under the teachings of 

 that prince of Canadian bee-keepers, J. B. 

 Hall. Here he clipped his first queen, ob- 

 taining his skill at the expense of the drones. 

 Ouite in contrast with the above is a view of 

 an apiary at Fort Pierce, Fla. It is one of 

 those beautiful dreamy views so characteris- 

 tic of that laud of romance. To show how 

 far Mr. Hill has traveled, he says that, while 

 John Newton has been caring for his bees at 

 the old stand with monotonous regularity, he 

 himself " might have been seen climbing the 

 foothills of the Allegheny range to see the 

 bees poison (?) themselves with mountain lau- 

 rel ; chasing a runaway swarm among the 

 sage brush up and down the precipitous can- 

 yons of California ; viewing the broad acres 

 of purple alfalfa bloom in the arid West ; 

 standing aghast at the oceans of mesquite 

 which stretch away to meet the horizon of 

 Arizona or Old Mexico; camped in some man- 

 grove swamp of South Florida, testing its 

 producing capacity, or tangled in the bell- 

 flower vines of Cuba's south coast." Mr. Hill 

 says further, " The noticeable inclination on 

 the part of some writers to ridicule the locality 

 idea is a clear evidence of limited experience. 

 The young man who looks forward to apicul- 

 ture as his life vocation would do well to re- 

 ceive his training in the country in which it 

 is proposed to operate." 



RAMBLE 179. 



Some Practical Appliances for Moving Bees in Hot 

 Weather. 



BY RAMBLER. 



Our return from the San Gabriel canyon was 

 marked with no unusual features, and again 

 we took up city life ; but my mingling with 

 the busy throng was of short duration, for I 

 was interrupted in a few days, and found my- 

 self lending a helping hand for the removal 

 of an apiary of a hundred colonies of bees 

 from Cahuenga Valley, near the city, to the 

 mountains of Calabasas, thirty miles distant. 



There is a peculiar instance in my traveling 

 companions this time. They are very modest 

 and unassuming men ; and, knowing that I 

 am inclined to write about men and things, 

 and particularly about such movements as 

 these, the master of ceremonies desired that I 

 should not mention names. He wanted to 

 just move bees, and not be exposed to noto- 

 riety. 



Of course, I always try to be agreeable to 

 my traveling comrades, and do comply with 

 their desires, therefore the real actors in the 

 moving episode will appear under fictitious 



names. There were four of us — three bee- 

 keepers and a dog. I did think of applying 

 the term " doggoned " to the owner, but for 

 short I will use the more expressive term boss. 

 The other man was not over-modest about his 

 name, and the original might appear ; but aft- 

 er riding several hours with him I concluded 

 that, through some oversight of his parents, 

 he had been misnamed, and so I give him the 

 name of Mr. Gabfast as more appropriate. 



The boss, not having many hundreds of col- 

 onies to move, believes in moving in light 

 loads, or in loads of not more than fifty colo- 

 nies. Mr. Gabfast had a good team, and a 

 wagon with a hay-rigging upon it, and with 

 this about fifty colonies were moved, while the 

 boss took with his lighter rig about twenty ; 

 and in order to give Mr. Gabfast and me the 

 full benefit of his style of moving bees he in- 

 sisted upon making a night journey. 



Now, it is a real beautiful experience to 

 move bees while pale Luna is shining down 

 upon us, and all nature is quiet. The reflec- 

 tions of the mind turn inward and backward. 

 But mine didn't. Mr. Gabfast held my atten- 

 tion right down to that load of bees. Now, it 

 is not that I wish to find fault with the boss's 

 method of moving bees, but because I think 

 there is a better way than to move during the 

 dead hours of night. Among other things it 

 deprives one of a proper share of slumber, 

 fatiguing horses at an unwonted hour, arous- 

 ing all of the ranch dogs, and even disturbing 

 the quiet meditations of the ranch rooster. 

 Bees can be moved just as well by daylight, 

 and the difference is all in the method of mov- 

 ing. 



The bees on this occasion were in hives with 

 closed-end Hoffman frames, and there was no 

 need of puttering with spacing-sticks. In 

 fact, a bee-keeper who contemplates much 

 moving of bees should adopt some sort of 

 closed-end frame. Our boss was very sensible 

 in using such a hive. It saves an immense 

 amout of puttering at the outset. The en- 

 trances to these hives were of the orthodox 

 order, and clear across the front. Into this 

 long space was thrust a piece of wire cloth cut 

 about \y 2 inches wide, and bent V shape the 

 entire length. The spring of the V ordinari- 

 ly holds the piece from working loose, but our 

 boss took the procaution to drive in a few 

 nails to hold it secure. Screen-wire cloth was 

 placed over the entire top of the hive, with 

 only a bee-space between it and the frames. 



If bees are to be moved any great distance 

 in hot weather, and hives are full of bees and 

 brood, when prepared in the above manner 

 they would need to be moved in the night ; 

 but quite a number of our bee-men prepare 

 their bees differently, and move at all hours of 

 the day and over long distances. A certain 

 bee-keeper under my own observation in this 

 country moved a large load of bees 60 miles in 

 very hot weather, and at a time when the hives 

 were full of bees and brood, and without the 

 loss of a colony. This success was attained 

 by providing ample space for the bees to clus- 

 ter or to move freely above the combs. This 

 bee-keeper used a rim just the size of the top 

 of the hive, three inches deep, and covered 



