214 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



June 



the matter, but may just quietly go home, as a good 

 bee should. The same principle of groups and 

 broad alleys can be applied to the hexagonal meth- 

 od of arrangement, if one must needs place in that 

 form. Many modifications can be devised, to suit 

 taste and locality, the cardinal principles being very 

 simple, and only two in number. First, no regular, 

 unmarked series, of either hives or groups, must 

 exceed four, or at the utmost five, in order that 

 each member of the series may be singled out 

 optically, without thought. Second, the distance 

 and arrangement of details must be such that bees 

 will not be likely to run on foot from one doorway 

 to another. When this matter is attended to, so 

 that no insect would think of passing from one 

 alighting board to another without taking wing, it 

 probably makes little difference whether the dis- 

 tance is three feet or eight feet. E. E. Hasty. 

 Bodley, Ohio. 



I most heartily endorse your reasoning, 

 friend Hasty, and while I read your article 

 I could not help smiling and nodding my 

 head approvingly ; as I thought of the many 

 times I had experienced what you mention. 

 I think, however, there is one point which 

 you lose sight of, and that is the use of hives 

 differently made. Suppose we use chaff 

 hives in the points marked x, or suppose we 

 make the entrances of the hives face in dif- 

 ferent directions ; such as, east, west, and 

 south ; or suppose we have occasionally a 

 single story hive, while all the rest are doub- 

 le story. I prefer the hexagonal arrange- 

 ment, on account of the economy of space, 

 and consequently of the steps of the apiarist. 

 Although I assent to the justice of your 

 reasoning, I am not quite ready to adopt the 

 precise form of an apiary that you suggest. 

 We have just been laying out an apiary for 

 500 hives on our grounds ; there are 7 apia- 

 ries in all; one in the centre and 6 all about 

 it. The land marks for the bees are to be 

 made with Chaff and Simplicity hives, dif- 

 ferently arranged. I think it is possible to 

 have order and system, and still avoid mud- 

 dling the bees. I am very glad indeed that 

 you have brought the subject before us in 

 such a happy way, friend H. 



May nth. — Friend II., I have had some 

 practical experience in the matter you men- 

 tion, sooner than I expected. In moving 

 the bees onto our new grounds, we filled the 

 central apiary in just the manner shown on 

 the last cover of the ABC book. They 

 were all in two story hives,and to have them 

 look nicely, Will gave them all a fresh coat 

 of paint. All were placed with the entran- 

 ces facing the east, just as they did in our 

 old apiary. Now I shall have to explain 

 that our old apiary has a building in the 

 centre, several trees scattered about, (as you 

 may remember), house apiary, old strong 

 grape vines, and a great variety of objects, 

 that might give the bees landmarks. This 

 one was on the clean, green lawn, and not 

 an object was to be seen, but the hives and 

 a single stake, to which the grape vine was 

 trained. Well, what do you think ? I ex- 

 pect /might have known what to think. If 

 you stood in front of a hive, first you knew, 

 all of its bees were going into the next one. 

 A few hives that had no bees in them, had 

 about as many bees around the entrance, as 



the others. Bees heavily laden with pollen, 

 were running one way and the other, in front 

 of hives, looking sadly puzzled because they 

 could find no entrance, the entrances being 

 closed up. Four hives, containing good col- 

 onies, stood in a row ; a fifth one, an empty 

 hive, was added, and almost before it was 

 set down, a shower of yellow Italians, laden 

 with pollen and honey, alighted, and com- 

 menced going in. You see they had mark- 

 ed their hive as the last in the row, and when 

 another was added, of course they piled into 

 that. Although in some trouble, I was oblig- 

 ed to shout in merriment, to see their aston- 

 ishment, and I pitied them so much, they 

 were given a frame of brood, and now they 

 are a fair colony. I hereby give notice, that 

 this is my invention for swarming bees au- 

 tomatically, and no body shall patent it. 

 Just think how simple ; set your new hive 

 down, and the bees pile into it, almost before 

 you get it leveled up. 



What did we do with the beautiful hex- 

 agonal apiary V I called Mr. Gray, who is a 

 genius for inventions, explained the trouble, 

 and in a twinkling, with the assistance of 

 the engraver, we had each hive so the bees 

 knew it, and so that you, friend Hasty, 

 could lay a pin on any one of the 60 hives, 

 and go to it at once. 



It was all fixed by turning the hives so 

 that the entrances, instead of being all to 

 the east, were turned to all points of the 

 compass. Of course we had it »so that no 

 two adjoining, were turned in the same di- 

 rection. If you will turn to the picture of 

 the hexagonal apiary on the back cover of 

 any ABC book, you will readily understand 

 it. 



Soppose we take the north row of hives, 

 and turn every other one west ; we shall now 

 have two entrances facing each other, and 

 two backs facing each other, clear through 

 the row. Now take the next row, and turn 

 one entrance south, the next north, and so 

 on through. Turn the third row, one east, 

 the next west, and so on, as we did the first 

 row. Now the fourth row, one north, and 

 the next south, and so on. It is an easy 

 matter for both you and the bees, to remem- 

 ber which way the entrance pointed, and as 

 it is 14 feet in either direction before we 

 come to another similarly situated, this 

 brings the hive into another part of the 

 apiary, or at least so far from any one like 

 it, that there is little danger of confusion. 

 The plan answers the purpose perfectly, and 

 the apiary presents an orderly and systemat- 

 ic appearance to the eye. 



FIXING THE ENTRANCES. 



Our apiary is surrounded with evergreens 

 as wind breaks, but as these are not yet 

 grown up, the location is much more windy 

 than the old one, and the saw-dust put a- 

 round the alighting boards was blown about 

 so badly, I was forced to think of something 

 else. The handiest substance to keep down 

 weeds and grass, was coal cinders from the 

 boiler room, but these were too dark colored. 

 As I have explained before, I want the space 

 around the entrance so clean that I can see 

 dead bees, should there be any robbing, or 

 even a dead queen, should one be brought 

 out. I can often tell when a queen is re- 



