This section is from the book "How To Keep Bees And Sell Honey", by Walter T. Kelley. Also available from Amazon: How To Keep Bees And Sell Honey.
Several out-yards should be located on one road if possible so as to cut down travel. Pick a large farm that is well fenced and preferably one that is posted against hunting so as to keep down pilfering. Do not expect a farmer to permit you to put your bees near his house nor near cultivated crops as to do so will only invite trouble.
Too heavy a shade causes your bees to be mean and they start to work later in the day. No shade causes your bees to waste much of their energy fanning the air through the hive to keep the combs from melting down in the hot summer sunshine. If no shade is available provide shade boards made of scrap material.
Pick out some waste land, a large pasture, or a woods lot with scattered trees. A light shade is desirable for both you and the bees but a heavy shade is worse than none at all. Try to locate your yard out of sight of the road; out of sight even in the winter months as most of the pilfering is done when the bees are dormant and cannot protect their stores. Do not put a yard near a road or path where they may sting passers-by. In talking to the farmer tell him of the value of bees in cross pollinating his clover seed and fruit crops, and how in some places $3. 00 to $10. 00 is paid by farmers per colony for this purpose. Farmers in general have read about this and you should impress on them that they are getting the best of the bargain.
A normal rental of this nature is $10. 00 per year plus a frame of comb honey or a gallon of extracted honey. The beekeeper, however, must guarantee to close all gates as soon as he passes through them and by all means never to bring any flying bees near the farmer or his house as he will be afraid of them.
Experienced beekeepers in California and some other Western States do not screen or crate their bees but simply load them after a good smoking, roping them down to the bed of the truck by means of special hooks they have welded there and moving them 100 miles or more. This sounds simple but keep in mind that these people have experience. They move their bees at night and have saddle gas tanks so that they do not have to stop for gasoline.
The great majority of beekeepers should crate and screen their colonies before moving for both their own and the public's protection. The regular stock crate staples (3/4 x 2") are the cheapest and best thing for the average beekeeper. In cool weather a screen, doubled, shoved in the entrance will be sufficient ventilation but in warm or hot weather it will be necessary to remove the cover and give top ventilation.
To close the entrance when moving bees, cut a piece of screen the width of the entrance and at least 12 inches wide, double it but leave the inside edge rounding and shove it all of the way into the entrance. The further the screen extends into the hive the more bees it will take to cover it and the less are the chances of smothering.
In handling strong colonies in warm weather it is not sufficient to tack a screen over the top of the hive. The bees may jam this shallow space tightly and smother themselves. To permit ample clustering space a frame 2" wide or wider and the size of the hive should be cleated onto the hive with the screen nailed on top of this. If available an empty comb honey or a shallow super or even an empty hive body will be very satisfactory except that they take more space on the load. It is important that the frames and fixtures be removed from these supers so that there is ample clustering space and so that the bees cannot crowd on top of the frames and shut off the flow of air.
Bees consume much more water than beekeepers think and in moving bees during the summer months it is advisable to have a quantity of cold water to sprinkle over them, especially if the bees are not arriving at their destination until after sun-up. A quart of cold water sprinkled down through the top screen will do wonders in quieting and cooling off a colony. Don't be afraid of drowning the bees or killing the brood - even if you are caught in the heaviest thunder storm with nothing over the hives except the screens.
Many commercial bee men move their apiaries from one honey flow to another. This is especially true in California where the bees are moved from the mountains to the valleys and also moved from crop to crop. This movement is due to the fact that when one honey flow is over there may be a long dearth locally while 25 or 100 miles away there is a big honey flow coming on from another source.
Bees are easy to move once you learn the trick. It is best to rope them down to the bed of the truck and to move them at break of day. Screen both the top and bottom of each colony in hot weather and give clustering space to avoid smothering the bees en route to the new location.
East of the Rocky Mountains, where irrigation is not practiced, there is not usually a marked difference in the honey flows in one location from another and as a result bees are not generally moved. In certain districts, however, migratory beekeeping is practiced profitably and some beekeepers winter part or all of their bees in the Southern States and then truck them as far north as the Canadian border for the summer honey flows. These long moves are expensive and call for first class equipment, day and night driving and possible financial disaster if the honey flow fails. On the other hand short moves of 25 to even 150 miles or more that can be accomplished overnight in your own truck are not too expensive to undertake and often make beekeeping profitable in locations that otherwise would not be worthwhile commercially.
To make migratory beekeeping profitable it is necessary for the beekeeper to acquaint himself with all commercial sources of nectar in his vicinity and conditions such as moisture, soil and other factors that affect the nectar flow. A personal study should be made of each locality.
 
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