A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to the Interests of Honey Producers 

 f UtO a Bear 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Publisher. 



VOL. XXIV. 



FLINT. MICHIGAN, APRIL 1, 1911, 



NO. 4 



Important Factors to be Considered in 

 Locating an Apiary. 



LEON C. WHEELER. 





1 



^ 



AM a great 

 lover of a 

 sheltered lo- 

 cation for an 

 apiary, and, 

 after choosing 

 the locality 

 where I think 

 the bees may 

 secure good 

 pasture, the 

 next thing I 

 look after is a sheltered position in which 

 to locate my apiary. There are also sev- 

 eral other things to be considered, for in- 

 stance, nearby water, with high, dry 

 ground for the hives to set on, a place al- 

 lowing of handy hive arrangement, acces- 

 sibity for teams, safety from fire, remote- 

 ness from fields which have to be worked, 

 et;. 



Being obliged to move one of my 

 apiaries this spring, 1 moved it fourteen 

 miles nearer home; or to a distance of 

 seven and a half m^les from home, into a 

 locality I had been looking at for some 

 time. This location is in the heart of a 



large alsike region. The woods nearby 

 have a fair amount of basswood and 

 raspberries, and there is a good supply of 

 milkweed to fill in between the clover and 

 the basswood flows. There are also no 

 less than five good sized orchards in a 

 radius of a half mile from the apiary. 

 Dandelions grow in profusion, and some 

 buckwheat is sown, thus furnishing an 

 early fall flow, with goldenrod and asters 

 for a late fall flow. What more can one 

 ask? 



The place I chose for the apiary was in 

 the midst of a patch of undergrowth, as 

 shown in the accompanying chart. The 

 undergrowth stands in a pasture field fif- 

 teen rods from the nearest field in crop, 

 and forty rods from the road. That dis- 

 poses of one item, viz., that of having the 

 bees where they will not trouble anyone. 



Swampy land which comes up to the 

 very limits of the yard furnishes water 

 until late in the season, when the bees 

 will be obliged to go to a creek 50 rods 

 distant, for the balance of the season. 



Undergrowth on three sides, and a hill 

 on the fourth, furnish a windbreak and a 



