OUT-APIARIES. 



318 



OUT-APIARIES. 



far along tlie line of the valley as in the 

 other direction. If only a single out-apiary 

 is to be planted, it is probably best to go in 

 the direction of the best pasturage— a thing 

 not always easy to determine. Sometimes 

 one location proves to be better than an- 

 other, year after year, although no apparent 

 reason for it can be seen. It may even be 

 worth while to vary a location a mile or 

 more for the sake of having it where pleas- 

 ant ])eople live. But you can do much to- 

 ward making tlie people pleasant by being 

 pleasant yourself. See to it that you make 

 as little trouble as possible, and be still 

 more careful than at home to avoid every 

 thing that may incite robbing, for robbing 

 begets cross bees on the place. 



RENT FOR OUT-APIARIES. 



The agreement between the bee-keeper 

 and his landlord, for rent, is as varied as 

 the cases that occur. Some pay a fixed sum, 

 five or ten dollars per year ; others agree to 

 pay a per cent of the crop ; some make a 

 bargain to pay so much for every swarm 

 hived by some one of the landlord's family, 

 and so on, while some can not get the land- 

 lord to agree to take any rent whatever. In 

 tliis latter case it is only right to make sure 

 that tlie landlord has a good supply of honey 

 for his family to use during the coming 

 year. In any case, be sure to do a little 

 better than is expected of you. 



HAULING BEES, 



Whenever you decide to start a second 

 apiary, you must give some attention to the 

 matter of hauling. If you winter on sum- 

 mer stands, there will be less hauling than 

 if you bring all your bees home to winter in 

 the cellar and then take them back again in 

 the spring. If you use chaff hives you can 

 have light cases made to carry merely the 

 brood-frames with the bees. The first thing 

 to see to is to make very sure that no bees 

 can get out to sting the horse or horses. Of 

 course, you think you are careful, and that 

 there is no need of anxiety in your case; 

 but, wait and see. The probabilities are 

 that, with all your care, one of your first 

 experiences in hauling bees will be to get 

 yoiu- horse stung ; and you may be thankful 

 if you get off without a runaway and a gen- 

 eral smashup. Some little leak evaded your 

 notice, from which the bees escaped, or you 

 drove your horse too close to the apiary, or 

 in some other way you may find yourself 

 in such a scrape that you may wish you 

 never had any thing to do with bees. A. K. 

 Manum used on his horses a sheet of cot- 



ton cloth which completely covered head 

 and body, and kept it on until some half a 

 mile distant from the apiary. 



You can haul bees on almost any kind of 

 vehicle. Some use wagons with springs ; 

 some use a hay-rack with two or three feet 

 of hay on it, while others use a common 

 lumber- wagon, or a hay-rack with neither 

 hay nor springs, leaving the frames with 

 no other fastening than the propolis and 

 brace-combs. With smooth roads this lat- 

 ter plan is very satisfactory. With good 

 level roads it may be best to have the 

 brood-combs run across the wagon, as 

 most of the shaking comes from the wagon 

 rocking from side to side, while a road very 

 rough may make it best to have the combs 

 running parallel to the line of travel. Where 

 combs are secure enough, it will matter lit- 

 tle how they are placed. To carry colonies 

 of bees to advantage, some sort of rack is 

 necessary. As we are not farmers we had to 

 extemporize a rack for our one-horse wagon. 



Whatever the kind of hive you may de- 

 cide to use, some plan must be adopted for 

 fastening in the bees, so that they may have 

 abundance of ventilation while being haul- 

 ed. As, however, the hauling is done in 

 spring and fall, less ventilation is needed 

 than during hot weather. The ordinary en- 

 trance, say 14 inches by f, covered by wire 

 cloth, will answer, as that gives a ventilat- 

 ing surface of about 5 inches, although more 

 would be better, and it might be bad to have 

 so little if the day should be warm. Of 

 course, the bees must be shut in when not 

 flying, and in spring it is a good plan to shut 

 up in the evening all that are to be hauled 

 the next day. In the fall the weather may 

 be such that bees will not fiy at any time in 

 the day, otherwise you must get to the out- 

 apiary early enough in the morning to shut 

 in all the bees you will haul that day. If 

 you are to take bees to an out-apiary in the 

 spring, the sooner it is done the better, as 

 pasturage is then apt to be rather scarce at 

 best. Where bees are to be brought home in 

 the fall to be cellared, they may as well be 

 brought just as soon as heavy frost occurs, 

 or as soon as they stop gathering : at least, 

 they should be brought early enough to have 

 a good fly before going into winter quarters. 

 After being unloaded from the wagon the 

 bees may be liberated at once by blowing in 

 a little smoke or dashing in some cold wa- 

 ter; or, if loaded too late in the evening to 

 fly, they may be left till the next morning 

 when they will be quietly settled down ; and 

 if carefully opened, no smoke need be used. 



