1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



43 



was found who had a truck large enough to 

 carry either of the buildings. 



Barnum's or any other circus would not 

 have attracted more attention with a man 

 in an open cage and a tiger driving the 

 horses in the procession than this larger 

 cage attracted with me inside of it in com- 

 pany with about a dozen colonies of bees. 

 Our professional apiarists, of course, know 

 that this was a simple matter in theory; 

 but it was not found to be so simple in prac- 

 tice. The shaking of the building on a 

 truck without springs was much greater 

 than had been anticipated, although the 

 road was smooth. Two hives, in spite of 

 firm nailing, were literally shaken to pieces, 

 and the insects came swarming out, the 

 most astonished bees that I ever saw. Their 

 amazement was almost ludicrous, and (for 

 them) an entirely new experience. They 

 alighted in clusters on various parts of the 

 apiary; but they were so frightened that 

 they forgot to sting. I scooped them ofif 

 the sides of the building with my naked 

 hands and put them back into the hives. 

 It seemed almost impossible for them to 

 sting; and it was as impossible to convince 

 and soothe the driver, who sat at the front 

 on the sill of the open door. So far as the 

 horses were concerned, it seems rather risky, 

 as I now think of it, to have about a quarter 

 of a million bees within this rattling, shak- 

 ing cage; but experience proved that they 



were absolutely safe, because every bee was 

 too greatly frightened even to protect itself. 



The photographs show the process of haul- 

 ing the buildings out of the yard and load- 

 ing them on the truck. 



The third photograph shows the struc- 

 ture safely located at our experimental plant 

 at Arcadia, Sound Beach, Ct., and the con- 

 tinuation of the work of experimentation, 

 with the writer in the act of transferring 

 the queen and some of her bees from the 

 large hive to the miniature hive named 

 Pearl Agnes in honor of my daughter. 

 These hives have been in steady use during 

 the summer, and have proved very conven- 

 ient for manipulating small numbers of 

 bees, and for exhibiting them to visitors. 



Arcadia, Conn. 



BEE-KEEPING 



FOR BEGINNERS, 

 TRATED, 



ILLUS- 



Cellar Wintering in Northern Michigan. 



BY B. D. TOWNSBND. 



[We have engaged Mr. Townsend to write anoth- 

 er series of articles for beginners especially, in 

 which "moving pictures" will illustrate almost 

 every point. Mr. Townsend says that, when he 

 looks backs to the first few years of his experience 

 as a bee-keeper, he can see that most of his dismal 

 failures were on account of ignorance of the com- 

 mon principles. In other words, the little things 

 that now seem to him almost too trivial to write 



MOVING THE LABORATOBY, BEES AND ALL. 



about were like mountains in his path 

 at that time. 



I This first article, because published 

 at a time when most bee-keepers in 

 the North are thinking about the win- 

 tering problem, is naturally on that 

 subject. — Ed.] 



Coupled with our own experi- 

 ence, and that of others who have 

 been kind enough to explain con- 

 ditions that bee-keepers further 

 south have to contend with, I 

 have come to the following con- 

 clusions: As a general rule, bees 

 in the northern states and in 

 Canada winter better in a cellar 

 or in a special repository under 

 ground, where the temperature 

 can be kept near the 45-degree 



