203 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apr. 1 



ing their yards. A few suggestions at this 

 time may not come amiss. 



First and very important, do not put an 

 apiary near a line lence, especially if that 

 fence is or will be next to a cultivated field. 

 It wiM be well for the bee-keeper to locate 

 his bees as remotely as possible from his 

 own cultivated fields; and if he owns a town 

 lot he should put them clear at the back end 

 of it, as far away from the highway as pos- 

 sible. 



Generally speaking, hives should face the 

 south; but there are times when it may be 

 necessary to have the entrances face in dif- 

 ferent directions to avoid confusion on the 

 part of the bees, especially if the hives are 

 arranged on the group plan. For instance, 

 we consider it poor policj; to place four or 

 five hives in a row, facing in the same direc- 

 tion. There is almost sure to be confusion, 

 loss of queens, and danger of strong colonies 

 drawing from the weaker ones. One can lo- 

 cate three hives in a group, all facing the 

 same way; but we would not go beyond that 

 number. If there are five hives in a group 

 we advise the arrangement shown in the di- 

 agram below, the dot indicating the %C3 cum 

 entrance. The three hives should [][][] 

 face the south, and the other two • • • 

 east and west. We would advise having the 

 groups irregular as to size. In one place we 

 would put two hives, in another three, and 

 in another five. Then we would go further 

 and pick out distinguishing objects such as 

 a clump of bushes, a little tree, or something 

 of the sort that would differentiate one group 

 from another. We regard it as very impor- 

 tant to place the hives so that each entrance 

 will have an individuality of its own. This 

 is quite important when young bees and the 

 young queen come out for the first time. 



As we go over the country we find a good 

 many bee-keepers locate their hives directly 

 on the ground. Such a policy is destructive 

 to the hive-bottom, and the hive is too low 

 down to work over to advantage. We do 

 not know of any thing better than a hive- 

 stand made of rough lumber on the plan 

 shown in the accompanying illustration. If 



you do not wish to buy them of the dealer, 

 go to your planing-mill and get the cheapest 

 and poorest stuff you can lind that will hold 

 a nail. The front board should slope from 

 the ground to the entrance. This is very 

 important in the spring and fall of the year, 

 and during the height of the honey-flow. 

 While the lumber for this hive-stand is 

 cheap, if properly nailed it will hold the hive 

 proper off the ground for ten or even twenty 



years. The bottom edges may rot, but the 

 rotting will take place so slowly that it is in- 

 appreciable. 



If the hives are arranged in groups, this 

 bottom-board is rather expensive. In that 

 case one could make an oblong frame, place 

 the hive crosswise on it, then lean a board 

 from the ground up to each entrance. Do 

 not forget to give the bees a runway, for 

 this will be found to be worth its cost. 



The question now arises. "Shall we have 

 shade?" This depends on locality. In hot 

 climates shade is indispensable. The Arizona 

 plan of shade running east and west is prob- 

 ably as good as any. In the north-temperate 

 climates a little shade is an advantage; but 

 too much is a detriment. Small shrubbery 

 is about right. The shade of old apple-trees 

 is a little too dense, while that of young 

 trees, say four or five years old, is about 

 right. 



In some places shade-boards made of 

 rough-sawn thin lumber projecting front 

 and rear as well as on the sides of the hives 

 would have to be used, possibly, during the 

 hottest part of the season; but during very 

 windy weather a 15-lb. stone or some other 

 sort of weight is required to hold them on. 

 For this reason we would prefer natural 

 shade. 



OUTDOOR WINTERING EXPERIMENTS AT ME- 

 DINA; GOOD RESULTS FROM THICK SYRUP 

 FED LATE. 



It will be remembered that last fall we 

 packed our outdoor- wintered colonies in dif- 

 ferent ways. Some colonies had a large ex- 

 cess of honey-dew; others, honey-dew with 

 syrup on top, and still others almost entirely 

 sugar stores. Some of the colonies were fed 

 early in the fall with a moderately thick syr- 

 up; others were fed very late with a very 

 thick syrup, or as thick as the bees could 

 take it. 



Most colonies were under sealed covers, 

 while some few were under absorbing cush- 

 ions. The great majority were packed in 

 double-walled chaff hives, and a few in sin- 

 gle-walled hives were wrapped in paper win- 

 ter cases and a few in wooden winter cases; 

 other colonies on the weak order were put 

 in the cellar in single-walled hives. For the 

 total aggregate the percentage of loss was 

 very light, not exceeding 3 per cent. 



It will be remembered that last fall we had 

 fears that the large amount of honey-dew 

 that had been gathered all over the country 

 would result in heavy winter mortality. 

 While some reports show heavy losses, yet 

 those losses have not been nearly as heavy 

 as we expected. 



At our south yard, where there was much 

 honey- dew gathered, we expected the mor- 

 tality to be heaviest, and it was. Five colo- 

 nies died outright out of 75, and perhaps 

 three dozen more were weak. Out of this 

 number quite a few seemed to have dysen- 

 tery rather badly. As nearly as we could as- 

 certain, this dysentery was much more pro- 

 nounced on honey-dew stores. Where a 

 colony had been fed largely on sugar syrup, 



