THE BEE-KEFPERS' REVIEW 



201 



inside- and is the nearest the city of any 

 piece of woods. As a result it is fairly 

 over run with city folks, especially with 

 boys on Sunday, and to avoid trouble 

 from meddlers 1 put a fence around the 

 yard. Trees served as posts, a four-inch 

 board was used at the bottom, a barbed 

 wire at the top, and five-foot poultry net- 

 ting in the space between. Atone corner 

 was a gate fastened with a lock. 



MOVING BEES TO BETTER PASTURES. 



Very frequently, during the winter, the 

 ground was bare in this locality, and 1 

 suspect that this lack of protection had 

 much to do with the lack of white clover 

 this season. I kept close and hopeful 

 watch of the clover prospects, and. finally, 

 tha latter part of June decided that the 

 only way to be sure of a crop was to ship 

 the bees to the raspberry region. About 

 SO colonies had already been sold, and 1 

 shipped 50 more to Northern Michigan, 

 sending them and 50 Iiives of empty 

 combs by freight, paying full rates for a 

 stock car that they might go through 

 with no delay in transferring. The wea- 

 ther was hot, up in the eighties, and the 

 colonies strong, just on the verge of 

 swarming, in fact, three or four had 

 swarmed. 1 put on a full upper story, 

 and put five empty combs in this upper 

 story, spacing them equally and nailing 

 them fast at the ends. These combs gave 



support for any clusters of bees that 

 wished to form in the upper stories; and 

 most of them "wished." There are two 

 very important points in moving bees in 

 hot weather; plenty of air, and plenty of 

 space to cluster off the combs. 1 had 

 been feeding the bees all of the spring, 

 and 1 gave them some generous feeds of 

 thin syrup just before packing them up, 

 which furnished them plenty of water. 

 They were confined two days on the car, 

 and one day in getting them out to the 

 apiary. Considering the circumstances, 

 they went in good condition. No combs 

 broken or melted down. No bees smoth- 

 ered. No brood lost. The only loss was 

 that of old bees, which, in some of the 

 colonies, must have been nearly a quart. 

 There seemed to be a difference in this 

 respect, even in colonies of equal strength. 

 1 disliked to be entirely without bees 

 at home, even if they did not fare very 

 well, so I left 1 8 colonies in the yard until 

 I had returned from putting the 50 col- 

 onies in the raspberry region, and then 

 prospects for clover looked so discourag- 

 ing that 1 at once moved these 18 colon- 

 ies out six miles to a locality where there 

 are plenty of alsikeand basswood. 1 was 

 out there yesterday, and it is wonderful 

 to see how they have been filling up their 

 combs with the alsike. 



Flint, Mich., July 3, 1907. 



Handling- of Bees and Their Surplus 

 During the Honey Season. 



M. V. FACEY. 



my^O things are especially desired by 

 -L every bee-keeper, especially if he de- 

 pends upon his bees for his bread and 

 butter. First, a large crop of honey, and 

 second, that it be of the finest possible 



quality. Happi'v. the system which pro- 

 duces the best QucJity of honey, i.-> also 

 favorable to a large cron. 



While we sometimes, in this !■ a'ity, 

 take som^ surplus honey during thy dan- 



