gratory Bee-Keeping. 



V FATHER lives in an adjoin- 

 ing county where there is an 

 abundance of boneset and 

 goldenrod. One year, a 

 younger brother, who had not left ho'Jie, 

 came to my place early in August and 

 carried home with him tvVenty colonies of 

 my bees. An empty story filled with 

 empty combs was placed over each col- 

 ony, and the top covered with wire cloth. 

 A hay rack was covered with hay to the 

 depth of two feet, the hives set upon the 

 hay, and held together in a "bunch" by 

 passing a rope around them. The jour- 

 ney of twenty-five miles was made with- 

 out mishap. Those twenty colonies 

 furnished 400 pounds of surplus; besides, 

 th»y needed no feeding for winter, while 

 the bees kept at home stored no surplus, 

 and each colony required feeding, on an 

 average, about 15 pounds. I gave one- 

 half of the surplus to my brother as his 

 share of the "spoils." Had buckwheat 

 yielded well, which, in this locality, 

 happens about once in half a dozen years, 

 nothing would have been gained by mov- 

 ing the bees. The inability to foretell 

 the honey flow in any given locality is 

 the greatest obstacle in the way of suc- 

 cessful migratory bee-keeping. In the 

 Review for August, 1889, Mr. R. L. Tay- 

 lor said: "I might have made f 1,000 by 

 moving 100 colonies there (to a certain 

 locality) last year, but I might expend 

 |;200 each year for the next five years, 

 in moving back and forth, and find at the 

 end of that time that I coijld have ob- 



tained more honey if I had not moved 

 them at all. This, I admit, is not likely, 

 as the advantages of that locality for a 

 full crop are so much greater than this, 

 but it is possible ." 



Only forty miles from here, on a direct 

 line of railroad, is a locality where the 

 main honey flow comes in the fall, yet 

 nothing is secured here at that time. All 

 bee-keepers know that the distance of 

 only a few miles often makes all the dif- 

 ference between no crop and a bountiful 

 harvest, and the question is, can't bee- 

 keepers take advantage of this fact ? If 

 they can, why don't they do so more 

 than they do? Either the moving of 

 bees to take advantage of transient, 

 neighboring flows is unprofitable, on the 

 whole, or else this part of bee-keeping 

 has been neglected. Bee-yards, honey 

 houses, etc. , are all gotten up with per- 

 manency of location in view. The bee- 

 keeper gathers about him these conven- 

 iences and appliances, arranges his apiary, 

 and, if the honey comes to him, all right; 

 if it doesn't, he does not think of going 

 to the honey. 



The expense of moving to and from a 

 locality a few miles distant need not be 

 so very great. Prom thirty to forty col- 

 onies can be moved on a large hay rack; 

 or a special rack might be constructed by 

 means of which one team could haul fifty 

 colonies. Small, light, readily movable 

 hives are a great advantage. One of the 

 great advantages of fixed frames, about 

 which there has been so much said of 



