756 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



December 1, 



■ — a union that is obviously destined to become the greatest 

 and most powerful organization of bee-keepers on earth — and 

 when through Us influence bee-keeping shall have been 

 lifted to its rightful place among the industries of the 

 nation ; when our product has become a staple household com- 

 modity, and bee-keeping knowledge and methods are brought 

 correspondingly to a higher state of perfection, these oppor- 

 tunities and neglected advantages will be embraced, and, un- 

 der keen competition, migratory bee-keeping pursued with 

 systematic diligence. H. E. Hill. 



Dr. Mason — In remitting his annual dues, Mr. L. L An- 

 drews, of California, wrote something about the subject of 

 migratory bee-keeping, which I suppose can go into the re- 

 port without being read here. [The letter is as follows : — Ed.] 



migratory Bee-Keeping in California. 



I am located In the foothills of Riverside county, and am 

 very well situated when we have plenty of rain, but in a sea- 

 son like the present, one is compelled to choose among feed- 

 ing, moving, or losing his bees. I chose moving, altho a dis- 

 tance of from two to six miles to the sunflower and mustard 

 fields. 



There is a great deal of wind here in the summer season, 

 that is very detrimental to the bees working later than 10 

 o'clock in the direction they would have to go to get to the 

 flowers this year. My mountain range is mostly covered with 

 annual flowers, filaree, black sage, dodder or love-vine, white 

 sage, holly, and sumac, In about the order named, all of which 

 were almost a total failure this season. The range I moved 

 to is level, moist land, both pasture and agricultural. 



The pasture land produces some flowers, but the culti- 

 vated land, as soon as the crops are off, grows up to sun- 

 flowers and mustard, besides there Is considerable corn, sor- 

 ghum and alfalfa grown. 



When I decided to move I chose 50 of my weakest and 

 lightest colonies, as it was mostly an experiment, and I was 

 afraid to even them up with my stronger and more weighty 

 ones, fearing I might be compelled to feed or lose them all. 



I moved them about the middle of June, two months later 

 than I should do another time. Those I left on the old stands 

 had the supers all on (I run for extracted honey), and were In 

 good fix when 1 moved the others away, and at present I can 

 see no Improvement, and some are In not nearly so good con- 

 dition. 



Those I moved have without an exception gone to work 

 and filled up. Most of them were lu one story when moved, 

 and I have had to put on supers, and some (probably one-half 

 of them) have filled both, and are now ready to extract. If I 

 chose to do so. 



The only mistake I made was In not moving early enough, 

 and not moving all I had. Bees are not unlike people In 

 many respects. For instance, take a colony that is ap- 

 parently in good, healthy condition, doing very little if any- 

 thing while the next one to it is storing honey ; take it a 

 few miles to new fields, and see how soon they will build up 

 and begin to thrive and store something away for future use. 

 It Invigorates and encourages them, and from my experience 

 this season I shall certainly follow migratory bee-keeping in 

 the future. L. L. Andrews. 



Dr. Miller — I think the subject of migratory bee-keeping 

 Is one of the greatest interest to bee-keepers, and at the same 

 time it is a subject of not the slightest interest. It is of deep 

 Interest to bee-keepers of Germany and other places In the old 

 country, where in certain seasons of the year they can go to 

 the heather and large buckwheat regions, and almost double 

 their crops in that way ; but it is a matter of not the slightest 

 interest to me, because I do not know of a place where I could 

 move my bees to advantage. It might be a matter of some 

 Interest to us to know how many there are here who are per- 

 sonally interested in migratory bee-keeping. There may be a 

 good many, or there may be simply a few. Tt might be well 

 to ask the question whether you have somewhere within 5 to 

 30 miles from you where you can move your bees and catch a 

 honey-flow that will pay you for the trouble of moving. 



Mr. Spauldlne — Would you include out-apiaries? 



Dr. Miller — No, I would not, as that is not migratory bee- 

 keeping; but if I take some colonies and move them to some 

 other place to catch a honey-flow that I would not otherwise 

 get, that I would call migratory bee keeping. How many of 

 those who are here are so situated that they think they could 

 make anything by practicing migratory bee-keeping? 



Five persons arose in response to the question. 



Mr. Westcott — I think that hardly covers the ground. We 

 do not know exactly whether we will be benefited by migra- 

 tory bee-keeping or not until we bear something from those 



who have had experience. It Is this way : I would like to 

 know whether I could move colonies 40 or 50 to 100 miles on 

 the cars or on boats, etc., and make it profitable to move 

 them. Here In Nebraska our honey-flow comes mostly in the 

 fall of the year. This year It did not start until somewhere 

 about the middle of August. Last year we had no honey-flow 

 until September. If we could move our colonies somewhere 

 In the spring, and keep them until heart's-ease comes int{> 

 blossom, I think it would be a great advantage to us. I would 

 like to know whether we rould do It. I would like to have 

 those who understand the matter explain it to us. 



Mr. DeLong — I have never moved any bees on the migra- 

 tory plan. I live In the south-central part of Nebraska, 160 

 miles from here. In 1894 and 1S95 I lost my entire crop of 

 honey, and almost lost faith In my bees also. I went out to 

 Investigate the matter, and within 40 to 60 miles of where 

 I lived there was plenty of honey. I have concluded now that> 

 I shall never suffer another loss of stores for my bees. If not 

 of surplus honey, for I can always obtain It by going as far 

 east as the Missouri river. This year up to Aug. 15 I had no 

 surplus honey-flow, and when I found a suitable location, the 

 honey came to me also. I anticipated moving out a couple of 

 hundred colonies of bees. I shall never suffer another tota) 

 loss, for the reason that some part of Nebraska always has a 

 good crop, and I find that when there are other good crops In 

 any portion of Nebraska, the honey-flow is all right, too. 1 

 have never known the honey-flow to fail In Nebraska, when 

 there is a reasonable crop-success. I have made my plans to 

 make migratory work of It, whenever the honey-flow doesn't 

 come to my place. This year I am in oae of the dryest parts 

 of Nebraska, while the south and southeast parts of the State 

 have good crops. 



Mr. Hatch — I had some experience with Mr. Mendleson 

 in moving 600 colonies 40 to 60 miles last year. It is custo- 

 mary in that part of the State to move in two directions. The 

 sage Is the big honey-plant of California, and all bee-keepers 

 try to get as much of that as they can. Then they move in 

 another direction, into the more arid part of the State, and 

 get the wild buckwheat honey, or they can go down luto the 

 llma-bean fields and get the lima-bean honey. Mr. Mendleson 

 moved his bees on very large wagons, furnisht with racks, 8 

 by 16 feet, and then a fence around made of slats, 6 feet 

 high all around, and we would hitch six horses or mules to 

 each load. The wagons are those big California freight- 

 wagons — 7-ton wagons ; the ordinary farm wagons, such as 

 are used In this country, would not do at all. On those loads 

 he has taken at one time as high as 150 colonies. We moved 

 them in July, and the bees were very strong. They had just 

 finisht up on the sage, and the hives were crowded with bees. 

 It was very hot weather; some days the mercury went up to 

 100 •. The hives were fixt with screens over the top, and 

 also one over the entrance ; but he has concluded that the one 

 over the entrance is worse than useless. The hives were com- 

 mon 9 and 10 frame Langstroth hives, with swinging frames^ 

 and we put spacers in between, something the shape of your 

 fingers, with a slat across the top, so that the spacers shoved 

 down between the frames. Then he puts a screen over the 

 top that has a 2-lnch rim around it, leaving a 2-inch space 

 above the frame. If the colony is very strong, he extracts 

 all the honey in the top of the hives and four frames from the 

 lower part of the hives before he fastens the frames. Then 

 he puts on this screen-cover with the 2-lnch rim around It. 

 At each end there is an end-piece projecting up J^ Inch. Then 

 he fastens the cover on, leaving a half-inch space between the 

 cover and the screen. In moving the 600 colonies, there 

 were only 10 broken down. It took three days to make the 

 trip, and on some of those days the mercury must have gone 

 up to 100-. It happened to be extremely warm on some of 

 those days. He got about four tons, I think, of lima-bean 

 honey, but for all that It might be considered a financial fail- 

 use. The direct loss did not amouut to so much, but those 

 colonies that seemed to be all right dwindled wonderfully in 

 the next 10 days. The bees were literally worn out in the 

 trip, so that they didn't survive but a short time, and there 

 was a great loss of queens, also. Yet, considering the drouth 

 of this year, it was in one sense a success, because he got the 

 brood-chambers full of the best kind of food. But If I lived 

 in California 40 years, and had the same opportunity, I would 

 not move bees, only to get winter stores. It Is a great annoy- 

 ance, and Is very disagreeable work. It has to be done at 

 night, and It Is too much wear and tear on the bees. It just 

 simply sapt the life of the bees. 



Dr. Miller — Why does Mr. Mendleson think the screen 

 over the entrance is useless? 



Mr. Hatch — The bees will crawl in there and die, and 

 the screen over the top seems to work just as well and have 

 the same results. 



