374 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



sell such beans for table use ; and if they 

 are unfit to plant, we might as well boil 

 them for the pigs and chickens. Our only 

 safeguard, for the present. I suppose, would 

 be to plant them late. Is it not a little 

 strange that weevils in beans have never 

 been known until within a very few years 

 past'? Can you tell us about how much bi- 

 sulphide of carbon will be required for, say, 

 a bushel of beans? 



BUGGY PEAS AND BEANS. 



When I was a small boy, 35 or 40 years ago, my 

 father used to sow a few peas about the tenth of 

 June, so they would not be buggy, and he could 

 have them to cook dry. He raised only black-eyed 

 marrowfats, and sowed broadcast. By sowing late, 

 the bugs, or weevils, rather, were out of the way 

 before the peas were advanced far enough for them 

 to deposit their eggs. T sow several kinds of peas, 

 and invariably find the earlier ones most infested 

 by beetles. I had one season's experience with the 

 bean-weevil when I lived in New Jersey, and 1 had 

 plenty of them. They look some alike, but are 

 evidently quite different. In peas we generally 

 find but one, and the germ is seldom destrojed, so 

 buggy peas may be planted with the assurance that 

 they will grow with right conditions. The beans 

 frequently had five or six weevils in them. They 

 were not as large as the pea-weevil, but perhaps 

 they did not get enough to eat to make them as 

 large. Late-planted peas are unseasonable. They 

 do not grow or bear as well, and are very liable to 

 mildew. Late-planted beans do better, as they like 

 to grow in the warmest weather. I frequently plant 

 them away up here in New Hampshire the first of 

 July, and get a crop. I never saw a bean-weevil in 

 this State. J. L. Hubbard. 



Walpole, N. H., Apr. V. 



ARBANGEMENT OF HIVES. 



FRIEND HATCH CONSIDERS THE MATTER. 



To facilitate operations in the apiary there is no 

 system of arranging hives that equals straight i-ows. 

 Other plans may be more picturesque; and to him 

 who wants to make a big show, the other plans give 

 abetter chance; but for the man who keeps bees 

 for the pay thera is in it, it gives points of advan- 

 tage over any other plan of arrangement. 



When examining them in a casual manner after 

 setting out in the spring for indications of robbing, 

 loss of queen, as indicated by signs well known to 

 all practical bee-keepers, how much easier it is to 

 walk along the row and examine each entrance and 

 dooryard in regular course than to go from one 

 hive to another, and then not know when you are 

 through ! And in swarming time, how much easier 

 to watch for swarms when they are all arranged so 

 you can, at one or two inspections, taking but a 

 glance for each row, determine whether a swarm is 

 coming out or not! and how much easier to find 

 where a swarm came from, if one has come out and 

 alighted while you were at dinner! 



In taking off and putting on supers, the advan- 

 tages are more apparent. Well I remember the 

 backings, turnings, and twistings I had to go 

 through with in trying to get the wheelbarrow 

 close to some hive when I used to arrange my hives 

 hap-hazard, trying to get each at least six feet 



away from any other, and facing a different way 

 from its immediate neighbor; but with all my care 

 in trying to dodge hives, one would now and then 

 get a " tunk " from some unexpected corner of the 

 wheelbarrow, and I would have to get the penalty 

 in sharp reminders to be more careful next time. 



The advantages of the straight-row system may 

 be summed up in — compactness, requiring less 

 room for a given number; ease of accessibility, and 

 best arrangement for inspection. 



The old plan of putting hives in straight rows 

 with fixed distances, and all facing one way, has 

 its objections, which are apparent to any on-j ac- 

 quainted with the habits of bees, and are not nec- 

 essary to give here. 



I have been using, for two years, a plan that, so 

 far, has developed no defects, and I am indebted to 

 that excellent little book of Dr. Miller's, "A Year 

 Among the Bees," for part of it; i. e., the arrange- 

 ment in pairs, which is quite an advantage; but I 

 do not like his plan of placing the entrances all one 

 way; and I like each hive to stand on its own sup- 

 port, independent of any other, and I want that 

 stand smaller than the hive, so that, in working 

 close to the hive, there is not so much danger of 

 hitting the stand with the toe of one's boot, to jar 

 the bees. The objection to facing the hives all one 

 way is, that, while you are working at one hive, you 

 are right in the line of flight of the next row inthe 

 rear of the one you are working with. The follow- 

 ing diagram shows a better arrangement, as two 

 years' experience has proven. 



6 feet. 10 feet. 6 feet. 



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HATCH'S ARRANGEMENT OF HIVES. 



The squares are for hives, with a star to indicate 

 entrances. Hives are to face east and west alter- 

 nately, in rows; alleys between entrances, 6 feet; 

 alleys between hives, at backs, 10 feet, which is the 

 work alley, the one to run the wheelbarrow in, and 

 to travel back and forth in. You will observe that, 

 while you are in this alley, you are 10 to 15 feet 

 away from the face of any hive, and therefore the 

 bees in their outward flight are far above your 

 head, where they will not annoy you nor you them. 

 If you wish to see the difference this makes, jou 

 have but to step over into the other alley, and 

 stand a few minutes, to be convinced. 



As to mixing of bees, and queens mistaking hives, 

 although your hives may be as much alike as two 

 peas you will see, by referring to the hives marked 

 A and B, that a bee or queen, to find a hive in just 

 the same position as her own, has to go across two 

 alleys, and 30 feet away— a mistake she is not likely 

 to make, the location al^ne determining her home. 

 In fact, there has been less trouble from bees and 

 queens mistaliing hives with this than the old hap- 

 hazard arrangement. I think a fair trial will con- 

 vince any one of its merits. C. A. Hatch. 



Ithaca, Wis., Mar. 11. 



Your article, friend Hatch, is timely and 

 to the point. I have been studying on this 



