1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



263 



l)ers are great enough, they will sting the 

 (jueen becanse she is a stranger to them. 

 Sometimes the bees of the whole apiary will 

 become so mixed np, that they have a gen- 

 eral melee and light, resulting in great dam- 

 age, if not in the destruction, of many of the 

 s.warms. Moving hives short distances dur- 

 ing the working season is almost always 

 done with loss of more or less bees, and con- 

 sequently honey. 



It is true, bees may sometimes be moved 

 without loss, for there is quite a difference 

 in the disposition of colonies, and where one 

 may be moved all about the yard without 

 any apparent loss, tl)(P next may suffer, if 

 moved only a few feet. I once piu-chased a 

 very strong colony of blacks of a neighbor, 

 and to be on the safe side, moved them on 

 a cold day in Dec. I should think it was a 

 week afterward, when it became warm, and 

 the bees went back to their old home in such 

 numbers, that the first cold night froze out 

 the remaining ones, and I lost my stock en- 

 tirely. At another time, a neighbor wished 

 me to take a swarm from a very strong stock 

 of blacks. As I had but little time, I set an- 

 other hive in its place, containing a frame 

 of brood and a queen cell, and moved the 

 old one several rods away. He told me next 

 day that the bees had all found their old 

 home, and deserted tlie brood comb entirely. 

 I directed him to move it again, and place 

 it the other side of the orchard, but it seems 

 these wily blacks had learned the trick, for 

 they all found it even there. Italians, as a 

 general thing, are more ready to take np- 

 with a new location than the blacks, and 

 stick more tenaciously to their home and 

 brood. 



Sometimes, shaking the bees all in front 

 of the hive, and letting them nui in 

 like a natural swarm, will answer to make 

 them stick to their new locality ; at other 

 times, moving the hive away for an hour or 

 two, until they get really frightened at the 

 loss of their home, will have the same effect, 

 after it is once brought back to them. In 

 this case, they seem so glad to get their dear 

 old home again, that they will adhere to it 

 wherever it is placed. Neither of these plans 

 can be relied on implicitly, and I really do 

 not Know of any that can. Sometimes we 

 snccepf oy leaving a comb for tlie returning 

 bees to cluster on, and then take tliem to the 

 new stand just at night fall. When allowed 

 to run in, they exhibit their joy by loud 

 notes of approval, luit, just as likely as not, 

 tliey will be back at the old spot the next 

 <lay, just the same. Witli patience, we can 



by this means save most of them. As a 

 natural swarm will stay wherever they are 

 put, anything that reduces a colony to the 

 condition of a natural swarm will accom- 

 plish our object. Bees depend very much 

 on the surrounding objects, in taking their 

 points ; and I have known a whole apiary to 

 be successfully moved a short distance, by 

 moving all the hives, and preserving their 

 respective positions with reference to eacli 

 other. Carrying bees into the cellar for sev- 

 eral days or a week will usually wean them 

 from their location, so that they may then 

 be located anywhere, biit this plan is ol)- 

 jectionable, insomuch as the colony is pre- 

 vented for that length of time, from doing 

 any work in the field, and this is quite an 

 item in the lieight of the season. Where 

 we wish to divide a SAvarm, the matter is 

 very easy, for we can carry our stock where 

 we wish, and start a nucleus of the return- 

 ing bees. The usual way, and by far the 

 easiest where it can be done, is to wait until 

 winter, and move them after they have 

 been confined to the hive for several weeks 

 by cold weather. Eees moved in the spring 

 seldom go back to their old quarters, for 

 they generally take their location when they 

 take their first flight, whether they have 

 been moved or not. 



Where the new location is a mile or more 

 distant, they can be moved any time, and I 

 have known them to be moved only a half a 

 mile, without any noticeable ninnber going 

 back to their old locality. If bees are to be 

 moved during hot weather, great care should 

 be used that they be not smothered and their 

 combs melted down by the intense heat that 

 is generated where they have an insuflicient 

 quantity of air. After many mishaps in 

 shipping bees in the smnmer time, we have 

 now decided on covering both the top and 

 bottom of the Simplicity hive with wire 

 cloth. When thus prepared, we have never 

 had any trouble, even when shipping them 

 during our hottest July and Aug. weather. 

 When we depended on wire cloth over the 

 top only, or over the portico of the old style 

 L. hives, w^e have invariably heard that the 

 combs were melted down, and that the 

 hoaey was running out at the sides of the 

 hive. Allow a draft of air right through the 

 hive, and the bees will take care of tliem- 

 selves, and the combs filled with honey. As 

 the chaff liive will not admit of this arrange- 

 ment, I would reeonmieiul that the bees be 

 taken out, in very hot weather, and shipped 

 in the S'mplicity hive: that is, just the body, 

 witliout any top or bottom. If you are pur- 



