TRANSPORTATION OF BEES. 161 



contrived for the purpose. In SAVOY, PIEDMONT, 

 and other parts of ITALY, the practice is also com- 

 mon. It is indeed of very ancient origin. Colu- 

 mella speaks of it as a very general custom among 

 the Greeks, who used annually to send their bee- 

 hives from Achaia into Attica. 



These, however, are advantages which very few 

 situations can afford ; probably but few of my 

 readers may reside in the neighbourhood of heaths, 

 and still fewer may be disposed to incur the trouble 

 and expense of removal. If therefore incorpo- 

 ration be desirable in any particular case, I can 

 only recommend that attention be paid to feeding 

 the bees with sugared ale ; by the assistance of 

 which, indeed, I should not be afraid of carrying, 

 even a weak stock, very safely through the winter 

 and early spring. " Give your bees," says Mr. 

 Isaac, " two harvests in one summer" (alluding to 

 the practice of transportation), " and you may 

 make almost any swarm rich enough to live 

 through the following winter." This second 

 harvest may be very efficiently supplied by an at- 

 tention to feeding, during mild weather in winter, 

 and particularly in the early spring, for the ma- 

 nagement of which, see^Chap. XXIII. on Feeding. 



