1'.»()4 



rilE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



177 



h.ive to be located on the islands while 

 nianj^rove is in bloom. As a rule the 

 islands are not as good locations at 

 ntiicr seasons as is the mainland and 

 111,, best waj^ of utilizing- the honey re- 

 sources of the mangrove is to keep 

 bees on the mainland most of the 

 year, and move them to the mangrove 

 locations while that is in bloom in 

 June and July. If the good locations 

 on the mainland were in all cases 

 close by the mangrove locations, the 

 moving of bees to and from same 

 would be a small item, but such is not 

 always the case. >Jy ovrn home 

 apirnes are about 110 miles by water 



moved \ny bees to u location about 40 

 miles from homo. This location is not 

 so extensive nor does it yield as large 

 quantities of honey as did the old 

 place. 



For the first two or three .years I 

 used sailboats to move with, since 

 then until this year have carried the 

 bees in my gasoline launch, a boat ca- 

 p;ible of carrying about 30 of my large 

 single-story hives. This year I luive 

 built a large boat capable of carrying 

 nearly or quite 125 of my large hives 

 — would carry easily some 300 single- 

 story Langstroth hives. This boat is 

 all covered in with good roof and can- 



IXTERIOR OF EXTR.\CTIXG BOAT AXD TRAXSrORT.. 



from the nearest fair mangrove loca- 

 'tion and the removal of 200 or more 

 colonies becomes a costly and labori- 

 ous job. 



When I first commenced keeping 

 bees here in Florida, the mangrove lo- 

 cation at Hawks Fark was so much 

 better than the one I am now using 

 that although much farther away (150 

 miles) I moved my bees there each 

 season. Two of us bee-keept rs united 

 in hiring a small steamer to tow our 

 bees on a large lighter at an expense 

 of .$1.00 to .'i;i.50 per colony up and 

 hark. This paid us fa'rly well until 

 the freeze of 1895 ruined the mangrove 

 there. Since then I have each summer 



vas sides. Sides can be fastened down 

 or rolled up as seen in the , i;st pic- 

 ture. This boat is used for carrying 

 bees, being towed with the launch, af- 

 ter which it is tied to the wharf and 

 used as an exti-acting and storage room 

 until ready to carry bees ba'-k home; 

 then taken out of the water and used 

 as a sterage house until next bee s, a- 

 son. I expect to use it then as a mov- 

 able extracting room, my out ai)iaries 

 being all situated on the banks of the 

 river, none of the colonies being over 

 50 yards from where the ))oat will lie. 

 Honey is all wheeled into tlie boat on 

 a wheelb.-'.ri'ow in comb-boyes. The 

 barrow stands just liack of the decap- 



