50 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



ground. This crowding- will do verj^ 

 well as long as we buy our queens, but 

 just as soon as we begin to have queens 

 mated, trouble begins. It does not 

 matter much about the workers mingl- 

 ing together, but it is all off when a 

 young queen returns to the wrong hive. 

 We had this point brought out very 

 forcibly at the Kalkaska yard this 

 year, where 200 colonies were kept on 

 four terraces, about 5o colonies in a 

 row, without any particular land- 

 marks to guide the young queens home. 

 The consequences were that we lost 

 one fourth of our young queens at this 

 yard, and only about five per cent, at 

 our other yards. 



WHAT MAY BE GAINED FROM OyTSIDE 

 PROTECTION. 



The editor asks to have his mistakes 

 pointed out. Mistake No. 1, is in not 

 selecting a more sheltered location for 

 the Review-apiary next spring; and it 

 is a very serious mistake. To illus- 

 trate: Mr. Geo. H. Kirkpatrick. of 

 Rapid City, Michigan, has an apiary 

 at his home that has just about the 

 same protection, I should judge, as 

 the pin-hole photo, shows that the 

 Review-apiary will have — ratherchilly. 

 Mr. Kirkpatrick's bees were all 

 wintered in the same cellar, and were 

 the same in Majs when, without any 

 care in selection, about one-half, were 

 moved to a more protected location. 

 The results were, with pasturage 

 about the same, tliat the protected 

 yard, produced one S-ftarne 7ipper story, 

 more, per colony, then the unprotected 

 yard. This lack of out-side protec- 

 tion has cost nie more bees, and of 

 course, more honey, than any other one 

 thing in bee-keeping; as it has only 

 been a few years since I have realized 

 its importance. There are dollars in 

 it, so, when locating in Northern Mich- 

 igan, select a sheltered nook for the 

 bees to occupy. 



A HIVE STAND !■ OR TWO HIVES. 



Then, iinother thing, when you begin 

 to count your colonies by the hundred, 



yon will not think of using your little 

 blocks under each hive, for a stand. 

 Make a stand out of four pieces of 2 x 4; 

 two pieces four feet long, and two 

 16 inches long; spiking the two long 

 pieces to the short ones. This will 

 make a rim four feet long, and 20 

 inches wide, which is large enough 

 for two colonies. These long stands 

 level upeasierthan single stands; and, 

 when level, they stay to their place 

 almost indefinitely, while the 4-block 

 stand will need almost constant tinker- 

 ing to keep it level. Just as soon as 

 3'ou begin to keep large numbers of 

 bees, you will begin to cut all the cor- 

 ners possible. 



One of the ivisest things the editor 

 has done, is to discard the eight-frame, 

 for the ten-frame size of hive, for out- 

 3'ards, to be run for extracted honey. 



MOVING FULL COLONIES IN THE SPRING. 



Under the head of preparing full 

 colonies for shipment, he saj^s he will 

 draw off quite a per cent, of the flying 

 force before shipment, and the full 

 colonies will each have an empty upper 

 story placed above, the top of this 

 upper story being covered with wire 

 cloth. Now, I am quite certain that 

 this e.xtra empty story above is notnec- 

 essar}', during May, especiall}' after 

 drawing off the flying force as pro- 

 posed; and those upper stories will be 

 needed for crating the surplus frames; 

 as these ought to be all ready nailed 

 up, and wired; but donH put the 

 foundation in the frames before ship- 

 ment, as it will not stand shipment. 



Remus, Mich., Jan. .^. 1905. 



[I agree with all that Bro. Town- 

 send sa3's in regard to the necessity 

 for having hives scattered and a dis- 

 tinctive character given to the location 

 of each hive, where queens are to be 

 mated. I learned this most thoroughl3f 

 when engaged in rearing queens for 

 the market. The more scattered the 

 nuclei, and the more odd^ their ar- 



