THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



129 



colouies are exhausted lor the season, and 

 their cohjnies come to the fall harvest in 

 injor c'uiulition, and also inclined to swarin 

 as soon as honey comes in. There are differ- 

 ent ways of overcoming' this, but it would 

 be easier to write a book u{ion mit^ratory 

 bee-keei)iny than to give, in one short arti- 

 cle, the most important points. I will add, 

 however, that, for a good, short and early 

 How, a colony ought to be as strong as pos- 

 sible, that is, have a large brood chamber, yet 

 I would prefer a smaller hive and a medium 

 colony for migratory bee-keeping. This for 

 two reasons: a strong colony is more likely 

 to be killed by transportation, and the queen 

 is more exhausted. 



Sklma, Texas, 



July 25, 18iSy. 



Good Eeturns for Moving Bees to Fall 

 Pasture. 



SCHLIOHTEB BKOS. <fc CO. 



';j VST YEAR, on the 25th of August, we 

 moved twenty colonies, six miles, to a 

 locality near a largte swamp, where 

 they had access to acres of boneset, 

 golden rod, tireweed, etc. (Jn the 2'lth of 

 September, we had taken from those twenty 

 colonies about 1,.500 pounds of nice comb 

 honey : while forty-niue colonies at home 

 stored only about 4(X) pounds of comb honey 

 and ;)(M) of extracted. 



^\'e moved the bees on a lumber wagon 

 having patent springs under the box. This 

 year we intend to move them on a hay rack 

 covered with straw. Two months ago we 

 moved V'O colonies this way twenty miles, 

 with good success. "We are going to move 

 sixty strong colonies, eight miles, in a few 

 days, to where they will have access to acres 

 of excellent pasture until frost, 



Bkown City, Mich., Aug. 5, 1S8'J. 



Migratory Bee-Keeping Correct in Principle- ; 

 Several Fine Points Considered. 



JAS. A. GKEEN. 



If'' VVTSH my experience with the topic for 

 5^ ) this issue were eijuid to my iiilerest in 

 ,JLj it. I consider it a very promising lield 

 for investigation. Undoubtedly it is 

 correct in principle, and there arc often 

 times when the honey crop would be greatly 

 iacreased by a timely removal to bettor pas- 

 ture. ^\'e all know that the tiora of a coun- 

 try differs widely within a few miles, For- 

 est, prairie, river bottom, upland and low 

 latid, cultivated lields and grazing land, offer 

 wide vari;itions, not only in the varieties of 

 lioney producing plants, but in the condi- 

 tions under Vv'hich they secrete nectar. 

 Practical experience contirras the supi)osi- 

 tion that the honey crop of these various lo- 

 calities will vary in proportion. Bee-keep- 

 ers carrying on out-apiaries have frequently 

 given testimony to the fact that apiaries less 

 than ten miles from each other, vary widely 

 in both the quantity and quality of the hon- 

 ey gathered. Under these circumstances, 

 does it not seem highly irrational and un- 



wise for tlie bee-keeper to leave his bees 

 where they are but making a bare living, or 

 perhaps less, when but a few hours labor 

 would take them to a region of plenty ? I be- 

 lieve the apiarists of Europe are somewhat 

 in advance of us in this respect, as we read 

 that, in some places, it is a very common 

 thing to move bees from one locality to an- 

 other to take advantage of a honey flow. 



There is not such an inducement for me 

 to hunt up new pasture for my bees as there 

 is for some bee-keepers I know, as, in this 

 locality, we are blessed with a variety of the 

 best honey plants. Yet, 1 am by no means 

 certain that it would not pay me to move 

 my bees for this purpose. To begin with, 

 this is not a very good locality early in the 

 spring, or else it is badly overstocked with 

 the bees I keep. Every spring I find that 

 bees not over four miles away are, getting 

 more honey and building up faster than 

 mine. As this is a critical time and much of 

 the« season's success depends upon brood 

 rearing being pushed to the utmost, would 

 it not pay me to scatter my bees out in de- 

 tachments during this season, where fruit 

 trees, willows, etc. are abundant? The ob- 

 jection is the bad roads we usually have at 

 this time of the year, making hauling and ^ 

 visiting diiKcult. 



It might pay me to move to bass wood. 

 This tree is almost exterminated in my ini- 

 mediate vicinity, though abundant ten or 

 twelve miles away. An out-apiary will help, 

 next year, to settle this question. The abun- 

 dance of sweet clover in my neighborhood, 

 which yields honey immediately after bass- 

 wood, has perhaps delayed action in this di- 

 rection heretofore. 



Basswood and autumn flowers are proba- 

 bly the sources of honey to which it will best 

 pay to move bees. In central Illinois, we 

 usually have a good flow of honey in the fall. 

 The best yield of honey I ever knew, came 

 from heartsease in September ; yet bee- 

 keepers living only sixty miles away (how 

 much less I don't know) got no honey at all 

 from this source, and very little of any kind 

 at tins time. 



Would it pay for us Illinois bee-keepers to 

 go up into Wisconsin to help the bee-keepers 

 there in gathering the basswood honey, and, 

 in i-eturn, invite them down here to help us 

 take care of the crop from heartsease? 



An apiary may be so arranged as to be very 

 quickly aud easily prepared for transporta- 

 tion, and the exi)ense of moving, loss in- 

 cluded, need not be great. 



If there is any time in the summer when 

 your bees are usually doing nothing, look 

 about you and see if you cannot find some 

 place within reach where there is honey to 

 be gathered at that time. Make yourself 

 familiar with the sources of honey in all ea- 

 sily accessible places, together with the time 

 they may be expected to yield. This done, 

 you are in a position to make the most of 

 your bees. 



As to the more local and unexpected 

 " honey showers," that seem likely to hap- 

 pen in almost any locality, they are a little 

 more difficult to manage. Those whose 

 neighborhoods are diversified as to soil, ele 

 vation, etc., might find it profitable to mak 



