409 



TWENTY-FIRST CHAPTER. 



ON THE TRANSPORTATION OF HIVES. 



PROFIT RESULTING FROM THE REMOVAL OF HIVES — ADDITIONAL WEIGHT 

 OF HIVES BY REMOVAL TO HEATH — REMOVAL OF HIVES IN SCOTLAND — 

 OBJECTIONS TO THE REMOVAL — ADVANTAGES OF REMOVAL TO WEAK 



HIVES — REMOVAL OF HIVES IN THE AUTUMN AND THE SPRING HIVES 



TO BE REMOVED TO THE VICINITY OF FURZE TRANSPORTATION OF 



HIVES IN EGYPT — PRACTISED BY THE GREEKS AND CHINESE — PLAN 

 ADOPTED IN PIEDMONT — MANNER OF TRANSPORTING THE HIVES IN 

 FRANCE — RULES LAID DOWN BY M. BOMARE — DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF 

 REMOVAL — THE PLAN OF TRANSPORTATION DISAPPROVED BY DUCARNE 

 — HIS OPINION EXAMINED — REMOVAL OF HIVES RECOMMENDED IN THIS 

 COUNTRY. 



When the different seasons are considered in which the 

 flowers are in bloom from which the bees extract their 

 honey, it is surprising that the custom of removing the 

 hives to distant situations has not yet been practised by the 

 English, and especially by the Scotch apiarians. The profit 

 which would result from this practice would more than com- 

 pensate for the loss of time and the trouble with which 

 their removal would be attended. In Scotland we have ex- 

 perienced an addition of ten and twelve pounds of honey in 

 every hive by its removal to the vicinity of heath, which is 

 of particular value to the bees, as it is in bloom when almost 

 all the other shrubs and flowers in the gardens and the fields 

 have ceased to blow. A rich corn country is a desert to bees ; 

 and in the northern countries, and especially in the highly 

 cultivated straths of Scotland, bounded as they are generally 

 on each side by "heath-covered mountains," the bees 

 should always be removed in August or September from 

 the straths to the foot of the hills, and it may with truth be 

 affirmed, that the proprietor will find himself amply repaid 

 for his trouble. We have heard an objection raised by many 

 persons to this system, founded on the difficulty of finding 



