340 STATE BOAED OF AGEICULTUKE. 



price must be decided by each apiarist, as it will depend wholly on the locality. 

 If boxes are preferred, they should be so made as to best attract the buyer, and 

 put in place as soon as the brood chamber is well filled, which, with proper 

 management, will be at the opening of the white clover harvest. As soon as 

 storing ceases, the boxes or frames should be removed, as the comb will keej) 

 brighter, and the boxes freer from bee-glue. If not full they can be returned 

 as storing is resumed. To free the boxes of bees when removed, they should be 

 placed in a close box, which should be all covered from the light except one lit- 

 tle opening, and through this the bees will escape to their hive. Should robbers 

 enter, leave the large box uncovered except by a thin sheet, which can be turned 

 over as the bees collect on it. 



Boxes containing honey should be placed in dry, cool rooms, secure from mice 

 and moths, and it would be well to place them in a close box the third day after 

 their removal from the hive, and burn some sulphur in the box. The fumes 

 would do no injury to the hone}^, and would destroy any inchoate moths. (The 

 methods of making, preparing, and adjusting boxes will be described under 

 hives.) 



HIVES SHADED. 



Bees are also forced to cluster outside the hive, where the hives are subjected 

 to the full force of the sun's rays. By the intense heat the temperature inside 

 becomes like that of an oven, and the wonder is that they do not desert entirely. 

 I have known hives thus unprotected to be covered by bees idling outside, when 

 by simjDly shading the hives all would go merrily to work. The combs, too, are 

 liable, in unshaded hives, to melt and fall down, which is very damaging to the 

 bees, and very vexatious to the apiarist. The remedy for all this is to always 

 have the hives so situated that they will be entirely shaded all through the heat 

 of the day. This might be done by constructing a shed or house, but these are 

 expensive and inconvenient, and therefore to be discarded. Perhaps the Coe 

 house apiary may prove an exception ; but, as yet, we have no reliable assurance 

 of the fact. If the apiarist has a convenient grove, this may be trimmed high, 

 so as not to be damp, and ^vill fulfill every requirement. So arrange the hives 

 that, though they are shaded through all the heat of the day, they will receive 

 the early and late rays, and thus work more hours. I always face my hives to 

 the east. If no grove is at command, the hives may be placed on the north of 

 a Concord grape vine, or evergreen, which may soon be secured for the purpose. 

 Norway spruce is the best. These should be at least six feet apart. A. I. Eoot's 

 idea of having the vines of each succeeding row divide the spaces of the j)revious 

 row, in quincunx order, is very good ; though I should prefer the rows in this 

 case to be four, instead of three feet apart, especially with evergreens. The 

 same gentleman's idea of having sawdust under and about the hives is a good 

 one. The hives of the Michigan Agricultural College are protected by ever- 

 greens, trimmed close on the north side. A space four feet by six, north of the 

 shrubs, was then dug out to a depth of four inches, and filled with saAvdust, 

 underlying which were old bricks, so that nothing Avould grow up through the 

 sawdust. The sawdust thus extends one foot back, or west of the hive, three 

 feet north, and the same distance east, or in front. This makes it neat about the 

 hive, and largely removes the danger of losing the queen in handling the bees; 

 as should she fall outside the hive, the sharp-sighted apiarist would be A'ery 

 likely indeed to see her. Until protecting shade can be thus permanently 

 secured, boards should be arranged for temporary protection. Many apiarists 



