Moving from fixed comb to movable frames
Transferring of Bees by F. Eric Millen is a short, illustrated circular about changing the housing of an established colony. Millen is identified as Provincial Apiarist, and the publication was issued by the Ontario Department of Agriculture’s Fruit Branch as Circular No.27 in Toronto in May 1920. Its central problem is the transfer from a box hive or another fixed-comb home into a movable-frame hive. The circular explains several approaches and compares the circumstances in which the author considers each useful.
Why the old housing is a problem
The opening pages argue for the advantages of movable frames over box hives. The discussion reflects an important change in beekeeping practice: frames make the interior of a colony accessible for inspection and management. A photograph of a box hive contrasts with the movable-frame equipment shown on the title page. For a modern reader, these introductory pages explain why transferring was treated as a separate practical subject. It was not simply a matter of carrying the same intact hive to another location.
Three principal approaches
The circular describes the Heddon method, a self-transfer method and a direct method. Their names identify different ways of moving the bees and dealing with the old comb and brood. The explanations attend to the queen, returning bees, the position of the new hive and the relationship between the old and new bodies. The self-transfer section includes an arrangement with the movable-frame body above the original hive. Readers can study how the sequence differs from a direct operation completed at one time, without assuming that the alternatives are interchangeable.
Equipment and illustrations
Photographs show drumming bees from a box hive, the self-transfer arrangement, apiaries and several tools. An equipment plate identifies a hive tool, smoker, bee brush, escape boards, an excluder and a wired frame. These images are a useful counterpart to the text because many of the operations depend on the physical arrangement of boxes, entrances and frames. A reader researching historical hive equipment can use the circular to connect an object with the particular task it was intended to perform.
Less ordinary colony locations
Millen also discusses transferring from barrels, hollow logs, buildings and bee trees. These sections broaden the subject beyond the rectangular box hive. The point is that the form and accessibility of the old cavity affect the available approach. The circular includes a separate discussion of diseased colonies and another on timing. Those passages are part of its historical disease-control context, rather than current treatment instructions. Anyone facing an actual colony in a building or a suspected disease problem needs present-day local expertise and applicable guidance.
Planning before handling
The closing advice emphasizes reading the alternatives, choosing a method and preparing the necessary equipment before beginning. This is a practical habit that remains useful when studying any craft or agricultural operation. The circular shows how a seemingly simple task divides into preparation, manipulation and follow-up. For readers interested in self-sufficiency, the document is valuable as an example of methodical planning and the relationship between equipment and living systems. Its specific manipulations, however, belong to the 1920 publication and should not be treated as a complete modern field procedure.
Audience and format
This circular will interest beekeeping historians, readers studying the transition to movable-frame hives and collectors of agricultural extension literature. It is also a useful companion when a longer historical manual mentions transferring but gives little space to the alternatives. Its concise scope allows the different methods to be compared without reading a full general handbook. The 16-page PDF includes original title matter, photographs, the equipment plate and library binding pages. It preserves a focused account of one practical problem that accompanied the modernization of apiary equipment in Ontario.
Book details
- Title: Transferring of Bees
- Author or reviser: F. Eric Millen
- Date: 1920
- Publication: Ontario Department of Agriculture, Fruit Branch Circular No.27; Toronto, May 1920
- Language: English
- Format: PDF; 16 digital pages
- File size: 597,362 bytes
Explore more practical books in Homestead.
