OUT-APIAEIES. 



322 



OUT-APIARIES. 



The two small circles in the northern pai't of the 

 diagram show the spots where we liad apiaries 

 formerly, and which, you will perceive, were further 

 away from home than the jtresent. At that time the 

 Slierwood apiary did not exist, nor did the Grubb 

 apiary; and yet we must say tliat we can see no dif- 

 ference in the yield of the home apiary. We are 

 satisfied that the Grubb bees go east, the Sherwood 

 bees and the home bees northeast, for their crop. 

 When we say the bees go in a certain direction, we do 

 not mean all the bee.s, but the greater part of them. 

 We can give you one convincing instance of the cor- 

 rectness of this opinion. 



By glancing at the diagram you will notice that 

 the home apiary is just about a mile and a halt from 

 the north point of an island in the river. In certain 

 seasons the islands are covered with water in June; 

 and after the waters recede they become covered 

 with luxuriant vegetation, and tlie yield of honey 

 from them is very large. In one of these seasons we 

 found a colony, belonging to a neighbor, located 



South 



THE DAD ANT SYSTEM OF OUT-APIARIES 

 ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



lialf way between us and the river, harvesting a 

 large yield of honey from this source, while our bees 

 harvested nothing. Is it not evident that our bees 



had not gone that far? Yet we have seen them two 

 I miles and iuotc from lionie in another direction. 

 Hamilloii, III. C. P. Dadant. 



In 1890, and also 1897, we visited a number 

 of extensive apiarists in the States of New 

 York and Vermont. Among otliers whom 

 we called upon was Mr. P. II. Elwood, who 

 occupies a territory for his system of out- 

 apiaries not many miles from that formerly 

 occupied by Mr. Quinby. Mr. E. runs 

 about 1000 colonies in a series of eight or 

 j ten out- yards, and they are located in the 

 valleys in the midst of those York State 

 hills. These hills are anywitere from 500 to 

 1000 feet high, and are covered with bass- 

 woods and clover. The former, scattered 

 over the hills from top to bottom, prolong 

 the duration of the honey-flow very con- 

 siderably. Instead of there being only 

 ten days or two weeks of basswood, it 

 sometimes lasts a whole month. The flrst 

 basswoods to blossom are at the foot 

 of the hills ; and as the season advances, 

 those higher up come in bloom ; so the 

 flow does not entirely cease until the trees 

 at the very top of the hills have gone out of 

 bloom. The bees will flrst commence fly- 

 ing on the horizontal ; and as the season 

 progresses, they keep flying higher and 

 higher, until they have scaled the top of 

 the hills. Bee-keepers who are situated in 

 such a country, or in swamp land, are in 

 the best localities for honey. It might be 

 well to observe in this connection, that these 

 hills form excellent windbreaks for apiaries 

 in the valleys. In Vermont, a colder cli- 

 mate, this feature cuts quite a flgure. Mr. 

 A. E. Manum's apiaries were located among 

 the hills, in some cases on the sides of the 

 mountains; but, unlike Mr. Elwood, he had 

 no basswood there. 



MOVABLE APIARIES. 



Experience has shown, in many instances, 

 that a yard which in years gone by has fur- 

 nished tons of honey is now practically 

 worthless, or so nearly so that the moving 

 of the bees to some more favorable location 

 is a necessity. For instance, four or five 

 years ago an apiary furnished an abundance 

 of basswood honey, but the basswoods 

 have all been cut off ; there is no clover 

 and the field is worthless. Again, a locality 

 has once furnished immense quantities of 

 white clover ; but intensive agriculture 

 has set in, and clover pasturage has given 

 way to immense wheat-fields. The inroads 

 of civilization sometimes cut off the honey- 

 resources of a locality, at other times; aug- 

 ment them very considerably. There are a 



