The Townsend Bee Book 73 
case, for it allows the bees to leave the hives too rapidly, so that, 
in a short space of time, the air is almost full of lost bees. A high 
wind aggravates matters, for this surging mass of lost bees may 
be blown to one side of the yard. It would seem that the leeward 
side of the yard (the side toward which the wind blows) would 
get the greatest number of bees; but such is not the case. I have 
found that the windward side gets the bees—that is, the side 
toward the wind. 
Hubbard Bros., of Boyne Falls, Mich., had a peculiar case of 
drifting last spring. Their yard is located on a ridge, one side of 
which slopes to the east and the other to the west. The hives were 
set out of the cellar in the night, and in the morning the sun shone 
brightly and the bees on the east side were attracted out by the 
morning sun, and were flying strongly before those on the west 
side even started to fly. The result was that the bees from the 
west side were so attracted by the great commotion on the east 
side that a good share of them went over and mingled with the 
flying throng so that there were finally entirely too many bees on 
the side of the yard which got the sunlight first, while the other 
side had but a few. It seems to me that in such a case I would try 
shading the east side until the sun is high enough to shine on all 
the hives at once; and then when the bees have begun to fly to 
some extent the shadeboards, or whatever had been used for 
shade, could be removed. In this way it seems to me the flying 
of the bees could be regulated, especially if the precaution is taken 
to contract the entrance down to about % x 2 inches. 
It must be borne in mind that the bees from the strong colo- 
nies are the ones that make the great demonstration at the en- 
trance, so that bees from other weak colonies are attracted to 
them. I know of no better way to regulate this than to contract 
the entrances of the strong colonies as explained above. This 
means that the bees from such hives can not fly any faster than 
those from the weaker ones, so that all are flying with about the 
same force. 
If the hives are removed from the cellar in the early part of 
the season, before the weather gets too warm, there will be less 
mixing on the part of the bees when they fly for the first time. 
This is a good point in favor of removing the bees earlier, for such 
imixing is quite a serious matter to the honey-producer. 
THE BEST TIME TO REMOVE COLONIES FROM THE CELLAR 
Whenever the indications are that the next day will be a 
suitable one for the bees to fly I go to one of the clamps and 
