PROPER TIME FOR THE REMOVAL OF HIVES. 159 



vehicle of conveyance. "We have moved half a dozen hives 

 at a time by means of that instrument, without the slightest 

 injury occurring to any of them. In the moving of two hives, 

 the common yoke used by the milk people will be found an 

 excellent mode of conveyance, and perhaps superior to any 

 other, as the hives run no risk of being shaken, the carrier 

 having the power to keep them even and steady. 



The middle of summer is a bad time for the removal of 

 hives, as the wax being rendered soft by the heat of the 

 weather, the least motion is apt to break the combs, and the 

 honey is more ready to flow from the cells, as not being so 

 viscous as in winter *. 



The most proper time for the removal of a swarm is in 

 the evening subsequently to its being hived. The motion 

 of the carriage or the body will then not affect the bees, and 

 they may be carried to any distance without the least risk. 



The railroads present a most expeditious and excellent 

 method for the transportation of hives ; although at the same 

 time, we rather suspect that they are a kind of passengers, 

 whose society would not be much courted. If, however, the 

 proper precautionary measures be taken, no clanger whatever 

 is to be apprehended, provided the fact were once established, 

 that the relative motion of the vehicle had no effect on the 

 dislodgment of the combs. 



The price of a hive varies much in different parts of 

 England. In the vicinity of London, a swarm cannot be 



* Mr. Lombard mentions a circumstance which shows the facility with 

 which hives can be moved from the 1st of November to the loth December, 

 and from the 1st of February to the end of March. In the month of February 

 1832, one hundred and five hives were placed on a carriage at Roche Abeilles, 

 in the commune of Limousin, in the department De la Haute Vienne. They 

 were fifteen days on the road, and after a journey of one hundred miles, dur- 

 ing w r hich the carriage broke down, they arrived in a good state, with the 

 exception of four or five, the combs of which were broken, probably owing to 

 the breaking of the carriage. He examined a number of these hives ; they 

 were made of osier of the bell shape, and weighed from forty to ninety pounds 

 each. They were buried in straw topsy-turvy. The fixed habits of the bee 

 almost put a decided negative upon the latter circumstance. 



