ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 123 



igratory Bee-Keepingo 



T is seldom that one locality abounds in all of the honey-produc- 

 ing plants that may be found by making short journeys in dif- 

 _i ferent directions. A locality unequaled for early bloom may 

 be sadly deficient in the clover and basswood blossoming so 

 profusely at mid-summer only a few miles distant, while a few miles 

 farther on may be a swamp or river bottom that is of little value as a 

 bee pasture until gorgeous with the purple and gold of autumn flow- 

 ers. It will be readily seen why some bee-keepers occasionally find 

 it profitable to move their apiaries once or twice during the season. 

 Some notable successes in this line have been made in Florida, 

 where the honey from the orange blossom comes in March, then a 

 move of perhaps 50 miles allows the bees to enjoy the bloom of the 

 saw-palmetto, and, later, another crop may be secured by moving to 

 the mangrove region. After the harvest of sage honey is over in 

 California, and vegetation in the mountain canons has turned dry and 

 brown, a move of 20 or 30 miles will, in some localities, place the 

 bees among thousands of acres of blooming bean fields from which 

 may be gathered a white honey of fine flavor. In Canada several 

 bee-keepers make a good profit each fall by moving their bees to 

 buckwheat regions. In Europe bee-keepers move their bees to the 

 heather fields, and then, later, to the buckwheat; in fact, so many 

 move their bees to the buckwheat that a train is sometimes made up 

 expressly for carrying the bees to these pastures. Several years 

 ago, a younger brother of mine, who had not left home, came to my 

 place early in August and carried home with, him 20 colonies of jny 

 bees; as there was an abundance of goldenrod, boneset and willow 

 herb in his locality, and none in mine. An empty story filled with 



