OCTOBER 1, 1916 



933 



ification, the " strain " must be known ; 

 however, my queens are at least eight 

 ilionths old before I pick the breeders — 

 only one strain in my yards so far as I can 

 manage it. It makes for economy, and is 

 one of the reasons why I let out against 

 late feeding; for so few beekeepers have all 

 colonies alike, and so many have a lot of 

 colonies short of young bees, and those are 

 the ones which usually suffer the most from 

 late feeding, particularly of thin food. 

 Variation from normal proportions of old 

 and young bees is at the bottom of manv of 

 our troubles in beekeeping at other seasons 

 as well as in the fall. The only practical 

 waj' to avoid such variation is to keep the 

 colonies headed with vigorous queens all 

 the time. Then " building u]i colonies " in 

 the spring and feeding tons oi sugar in the 

 fall ceases to be a habi'. (Dr. Miller's 

 building up is quite a different thing from 

 the common practice ; but it is very costly 

 in labor, and 1 have often wou'^ored if he 

 could nc': avoid the need.) 



As to bees in orchards, I was talking of 

 my bees while Mr. Crane was thinking of 

 the orcJiordist's. For the sake of my*peace 

 of mind I want my bees " horse distance " 

 away from where thev are to be worked. 



That piirase did just what I made it for — 

 drew attention to the need of keeping bees 

 and horses a safe distance apart. 



Tf Mr. Crane will visit Essex County and 

 some other sections of eastern Massachu- 

 setts lie will see the curse of spray-crazy 

 people. So long as orehardists are careless 

 in such matters, so long they must buy bees 

 to poison. I'll keep mine a safe distance 

 away. It is the " times that spraying does 

 kill the bees" that I am afraid of; and as I 

 cannot tell in advance, I avoid the risk. 



So far as perfect pollination of a big 

 orchard in a stormy spring is concerned, 

 the scattering of bees thru the orchard is 

 the best, as I showed twenty years ago. 

 But in the article Mr. Crane took issue with 

 I was considering my honey crop, while he 

 was thinking of the orchardist's fruit crop. 

 I keep bees for honey, not to accommodate 

 some one else. If mj- business and his work 

 in harmony he is welcome to such benefits 

 as my bees will give; but otherwise I shall 

 move to distant fields, as I have had to do 

 in one case. 



So the reader will see that Mr. Crane and 

 I are not so very far apart. We were 

 simi:»ly looking at things from a different 

 point of view. 



Providence, R. I. 



HOW TO MOVE HIVES OF BEES SHORT DISTANCES 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER 



When a bee takes its first flight it spends 

 some time in marking its location, not so 

 much in noting the appearance of its hive 

 as that of the surrounding objects. Change 

 its hive, or the appearance of its hive, and 

 it will show some confusion and hesitation 

 about entering, but will soon accept the 

 change. Move the hive to a new place, and 

 just what the bees will do depends on cir- 

 cumstances. When I had only one colony 

 of bees I moved the hive to a new place 

 about a rod distant. When bees next re- 

 turned from the field they went straight to 

 the old place from which the hive had been 

 moved. Surrounding objects had not been 

 changed, and by them they were guided. 

 After sailing about the old spot for a little 

 while they began to search the neighborhood, 

 and soon found their old hive in its new 

 place. How far it might have been safely 

 moved I do not know, but very likely it 

 might have been ten rods or more, possibly 

 much further. 



But it's quite a different matter with the 

 present number of colonies in my apiary. 

 If I move a hive to a new location tlie bees 

 returning from the field will be likely to 



enter one of the hives nearest the old loca- 

 tion. So it may happen that they will not 

 find their hive if it be moved only four feet, 

 if that leaves some other hive within less 

 than four feet from the old location, as 

 would happen where two hives are standing 

 close togetlier and one of them jumps to 

 the opposite side of the other. 



As a general rule a bee probably marks 

 its location once for all. That lasts for its 

 usual lifetime of about six weeks, and no 

 doubt would last indefinitely if it were to 

 fly daily. But after confinement for a time, 

 upon its first flight again it will mark its 

 location anew. How long a confinement is 

 necessary to make it mark anew its location 

 I do not know; but I know that it varies 

 greatly according to circumstances. After 

 the confinement of three or four months in 

 winter the location is invariably marked 

 upon the fiist flight in spring; yet even 

 then, if a hive taken from the cellar is .put 

 on a stand other than the one it occupied 

 tlie previous fall, the bees will in some cas^s 

 be seen flying about the old stand, showing 

 that it has not been utterly fo;^'otten. On 

 the other hand, at a time when a heavy flow 



