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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



we have no desire to discourage the rearing 

 of good queens, we do feel that too much 

 stress has been laid upon the matter ; that 

 the practical honey producer need only 

 select the best strains of bees and let the 

 bees do their own queen rearing. For in- 

 stance, if a man has a stock of bees that are 

 excellent workers, can he step in, and, by 

 some sort of "jugglery," induce the bees to 

 rear a queen that will furnish better bees 

 than they are ? That's the point. As we 

 have already said, our bees may be improved 

 by crossing and selection, and, of course, 

 this must be done tlirough the queens ; but 

 that anything can be done by queen rearing, 

 in itself, we very much doubt. 



MIGRATOEY BEE-KEEPING. 



Our father lives in an adjoining county, 

 where there is an abundance of boneset and 

 goldenrod. One year, when we lived at Rog- 

 ersville, a younger brother, who has not yet 

 left the old home, came down early in Au- 

 gust and carried home with him twenty col- 

 onies of our bees. An upper story filled with 

 empty combs was placed over each colony, 

 and the top covered with wire cloth. A hay 

 rack was covered with hay to the depth of 

 two feet, the hives set upon the hay, and 

 held together in a "bunch" bypassing a 

 rope around them. The journey of twenty- 

 five miles was made without mishap. These 

 twenty colonies furnished 400 pounds of sur- 

 plus ; besides, they needed no feeding for 

 winter, while the bees kept at home stored no 

 surplus, and each colony required feeding, 

 on an average, about fifteen pounds. We 

 gave one-half of the surplus to our brother 

 as his share of the "spoils." Had buck- 

 wheat yielded well, which, with us, happens 

 about once in half a dozen years, nothing 

 would have been gained by moving the bees. 

 Last year, Mr. R. L. Taylor's crop of honey 

 was almost an entire failure, while enor- 

 mous crops were secured a few miles north 

 of him. Byron Walker lives only forty 

 miles from Flint, on a direct line of rail- 

 road, and his main crop comes in the fall, 

 while scarcely anything is secured here at 

 that time. But why nmltiply instances? All 

 know that the distance of only a few miles 

 often makes all the difference between no 

 crop and a bountiful liarveat ; and the ques- 

 tion is, can't bee-keepers take advantage of 

 this fact? If they can, why don't they do so 

 more than they do? Either the moving of 



bees to take advantage of transient, neigh-' 

 boring flows is unprofitable, or else this part 

 of bee-keeping has been neglected. Bee- 

 yards, honey-houses, hives, etc., are all got- 

 ten up with permanency of location in view. 

 The bee-keeper gathers about him these con- 

 veniences and appliances ; arranges his api- 

 ary; and, if the honey comes to him, all 

 right ; if it doesn't, he does not think of 

 fjoimj to the honey. The expense of moving 

 to and from a locality a few miles distant 

 need not be so very great. From thirty to 

 forty colonies can be moved on a large hay 

 rack ; or a special rack might be constructed 

 by means of which one team could move 

 fifty colonies. Small, light, readily-movable 

 hives would be an advantage. But the prepa- 

 ration for moving, the moving, and other de- 

 tails, need occupy no great amount of space 

 in the discussion ; all these can be managed 

 if the moving of bees to secure a crop is cor- 

 rect ill 2iri)ici2)le. That is what we would 

 like decided. Some localities are blessed 

 with white clover, basswood and fall flow- 

 ers. To the apiarist in such a locality, this 

 question may not be so very interesting. Still, 

 the difference in rainfall, or in other con- 

 ditions, may make a difference in the yield 

 from the same variety of blossoms in local- 

 ities only a few miles apart ; and might it 

 not pay a beekeeper to have everything so 

 arranged that, with a day's warning, he could 

 load up his apiary and set it down 20 miles 

 away where a " lioney shower" is passing? 

 Then, again, how shall a bee-keeper in such 

 a case learn of these "passing showers?" 

 But when a bee-keeper has only white clover, 

 or basswood, or fall flowers, from which to 

 secure surplus, yet lives only a few miles 

 from one, or both, of the other sources, it 

 does seem to us as thougli he ought to seri- 

 ously consider the advisability of moving 

 his bees to these other fields when the har- 

 vest is ready for the laborers. To us this ap- 

 pears like a more promising field for experi- 

 ment than that of planting for honey. In- 

 stead of spending time and money for seeds, 

 land and cultivation, let us move our bees 

 where Nature has already scattered the flow- 

 ers with a lavish hand. ^Ve should be glad 

 of the views aiul experiences of our subscri- 

 bers upon this subject, that we may publish 

 them in the August Review, If you have 

 moved bees to " pastures new," tell us about 

 it, and let us know whether or not you found 

 it profitable. If you have only theory to 

 offer, send it on ; we have not such a horror 



