THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



51 



ranj;;"ement, the less the loss of queens. 

 Where I lived at the time I was en- 

 gag^ed in commercial queen rearing, 

 the shop stood within two rods of the 

 house, and the nuclei were irregularly 

 scattered around these two buildings 

 wliicli made the best of land marks. 

 Then there was occasionally ^i small 

 tree. The loss of queens in mating 

 was very small, indeed. With ni}' 

 apiary arranged as I am to have it an- 

 other season, I expect to so manage as 

 to have the queens mated in the hives 

 standing at the ends of rows. I don't 

 remember as I ever lost a queen from 

 a hive standing at the end of a row. 

 One more point: I doubt if the distance 

 apart that hives stand has so much 

 bearing upon this question, as does 

 the arrangement. 



I presume that Mr. Townsend is en- 

 tirely correct regarding the advan- 

 tages of having an apiary located in a 

 sheltered nook. Mr. J. E. Crane told 

 us, in the Review, not long ago. of an 

 apiary that gave such poor results that 

 he seriously contemplated moving it to 

 another part of the countr3', but a move 

 of only 40 rods, to a more sheltered lo- 

 cation, changed results most radically 

 for the better. "By the waj', this loca- 

 tion that I have all in readiness for 

 use next spring is not to be a perma- 

 nent location; the coming season is 

 probably as long as I shall keep bees 

 on that spot, but sheltered nooks, in 

 the suburbs of a city, near one's home, 

 are not always to be found. I believe 

 I have my e3'e upon a spot that is al- 

 most ideal in this respect, and it is not 

 far from my home, and, if I should 

 continue to maintain an apiary here in 

 Flint, as I probabl3- shall, as it is an 

 ideal clover location, I shall probably 

 buj' the lot, and build a cellar and 

 shop, or honey house. I would like to 

 have two or three apiaries in the rasp- 

 berry- region, one here at home in the 

 clover countr3% and then one or two in 

 a buckwheat Count3- in the State, upon 

 which I have had my eye for some 



time — but this is certainly building 

 castles in the air. However, ever3'- 

 thing must be Hrst formed in the imagi- 

 nation before it can be made a reality. 

 The pin-hole photograph, and the 

 lack of more explicit description, have 

 led Bro. Townsend into the error of 

 supposing that I intended to mount 

 each hive upon four stakes or blocks, 

 which is not the case. My hive-stand 

 so far has been simply two strips of 

 hemlock. 2x2 inches and as long as 

 the hive is wide. One strip is jdaced 

 under the front end of the hive and one 

 under the back end. In la3'ing out the 

 ground, a piece of section hone3' box 

 was stuck into the ground at each cor- 

 ner of where a hive was to stand, then 

 these hemlock blocks laid down be- 

 tween the slakes, and leveled up, but 

 the3' are so nearl3' the color of the dead 

 grass that they scarcely' show. I have 

 never used two colonies upon one stand, 

 and don't know how I should like it. I 

 have alwa3's imagined that the manip- 

 ulation of one colony would disturb 

 the other, with the result that it would 

 be resented. However, this ma3' be 

 mostly in my imagination; and, even if 

 a reality, the objection might be over- 

 come b3^ giving both colonies a little 

 smoke before commencing operations. 

 Aside from the fact that a double stand 

 can be made a little more cheapl3' than 

 two single stands, and that the other 

 hive affords a table upon which lo set 

 down the smoker, or any other tools, I 

 fail to see an3' advantage in the double 

 stand. Yes, Bro. Townsend says that 

 such a stand will stay level longer 

 without an3' tinkering than is the case 

 with a single stand, and it seems rea- 

 sonable. The same space of land will 

 accommodate more colonies, which, in 

 some instances would be a decided ad- 

 vantage. 



I presume my critic is correct again 

 when he says that colonies from which 

 most of the dying force had been 

 drained the last of May might be 

 shipped in safetj^ without ])lacing anj' 



