374 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Locating Apiaries in Northern Micnigan. 



Since locatinjj apiaries in Northern 

 Michigan I frequently receive a request 

 from some reader, asking if I can point 

 out some good, unoccupied location. 

 I can't do it. Although I had been 

 about considerably in Northern Michi- 

 gan before deciding to locate bees there, 

 I was considerably at sea, as to where 

 should be the exact spot. I felt sure 1 

 would locate in Missaukee, Kalkaska 

 or Antrim counties, rather favoring 

 Kalkaska, yet my brother and myself 

 spent about two weeks looking about 

 before deciding upon locations for the 

 three yards; and, if we should now 

 decide to start a fourth apiary we would 

 have to start out and hunt a location 

 for it. The difficulties to be encoun- 

 tered are given in detail in the Review 

 for last May. There are plenty of 

 good, unoccupied locations in the 

 counties I have mentioned, there isn't 

 a partical of doubt of that, but just ex- 

 actly where I don't know. 



Another thing, the desirability of 

 the different raspberry locations are 

 constantly changing — some are be- 

 coming too old — grown up with under- 

 brush, or made into farms — and others 

 are coming on from the new choppings. 

 A man must have an eye to those things 

 when he locates — must see if there are 

 new pastures coming on, nearby, to 

 take the place of the old ones as they 

 "peter out." 



If you wish to go into the bee busi- 

 ness in Northern Michigan, you better 

 come and look over the region for your- 

 5i?//", and take plenty of time. Come as 

 soon as the snow is off and before the 

 bushes and trees have put forth their 

 leaves, as it is much easier to distin- 

 guish the berry briers when they are 

 bare of leaves; their reddish brown 

 color showing in great contrast with 

 the gray of the other kinds of brush. 

 When all are in their coats of green, 

 all loojc alike, 



The Hershiser Bottom Boardr. 



I have a good friend down in Buffalo, 

 New York, who has invented a bottom 

 board. One feature of it is that it 

 furnishes space below the hive in 

 winter. This I know to be a good 

 thing, but no better than the open space 

 furnished by tiering up the hives by 

 means of blocks between them. An- 

 other feature is that the bees are con- 

 fined to the box-like space below the 

 hive, and my friend thinks this is an 

 advantage — that the bees that leave the 

 hive are not lost on the floor, and that 

 they are enabled to regain the cluster. 

 On this point Mr. Morley Pettit, of 

 Canada, in writing the American Bee 

 Journal, says : — 



We find it not practical to confine 

 bees to the hive while in the cellar. 

 Weak colonies and nuclei tnay be con- 

 fined without serious loss. Though I 

 doubt that. But where strong colonies 

 are so confined there are sure to be 

 some bees that fly to the screen, try to 

 get out, and make noise enough to 

 arouse the whole cellar. This is no 

 theory, as my experience proves. 



I have never tried confining bees to 

 the hives in winter, either indoors or 

 out. and doubt its advisabilty. With 

 such an ante-room as there is in the 

 Hershiser bottom board it may do no 

 harm, but it has always seemed to me m 

 that the bee that left the cluster in ■ 

 winter was either old or sick, and 

 would not remain in the cluster even if 

 it were returned to it and that it would 

 soon die any way, and might just as well 

 be down on the floor as boxed up in an 

 ante-room of the hive. 



It is claimed that this bottom board 

 is an advantage when carrying out 

 bees in the spring — that they can't 

 annoy any one by coming out of the 

 hive. This is true, but it is an easy 

 matter to set a hive on a regular bot- 

 tom board, and close the entrance, 

 either with a strip of wood or a piece 

 of cloth. The Hershiser bottom bot- 

 tom board is a harmless invention, but 

 I think it costs more than its advan- 

 tages wiU W3-ri"apt one to pay ! 



