1887 



GLEANIN^GS IX BEE CULTURE. 



93S 



ESTABLISHING OUT-APIAKIES. 



DOES IT PAYV if so, how SHALL WE GO TO WORK? 



fHE following paper was to have been 

 read at the convention recently held 

 at Chicago ; but through some delay 

 it didn't reach there in time. Inasmuch 

 as the subject of out-apiaries has been 

 considered in our Question- Box department, 

 w^e thought best to take the following from 

 friend Jones's paper. He has had large ex- 

 perience in this line ; and as he speaks 

 from actual experience, the reader will find 

 many valuable points in it : 



This is the question that has been assigned me by 

 your Secretary, and it is one which is receiving- 

 considerable attention just now, as many engaged 

 in apiculture are increasing their colonies until 

 they have, frequently, more than they can afford to 

 keep in one apiary. Then the questions aiise. What 

 should they do? Should they sell them off or start 

 "out apiaries"? There are some localities where 

 ■'iOO colonies might be kept with success, and there 

 are others where 100 would overstock them. We 

 consider from 100 to 300 colonies as many as is profit- 

 able to keep in the average apiary. In establishing 

 out-apiaries, fifty colonies would make a start, but 

 we would recommend a hundred, as no more trouble 

 need be taken to manipulate them. These would 

 contain 300 in the tall, which might be divided 

 again ; thus your apiaries, if you double your colo- 

 nies, would double every year. But counting rais- 

 hai)s, sales, and losses, perhaps we might more 

 reasonably e.xpect to double our colonies every 

 two years. This, of course, depends largely on the 

 practice of the apiarist. One man is required at 

 each out-apiary during the season, which in this 

 country varies from four to five months. From 

 our home apiary we located one about one and a 

 half miles to the northwest, the ne.xt about four 

 miles to the northeast, ne.\t seven miles to the 

 northeast, then one five miles north, one six miles 

 northwest, and one ten miles northwest, with some- 

 times smaller ones between. From personal ex- 

 perience we are satisfied that, in good localities, 

 from two to three miles apart is far enough to have 

 them. We have had as good results from the 

 closest apiaries as from those furthest apart, 

 and that, too, when there were over 300 colonies in 

 each. If the locality were suitable, we should pre- 

 fer to place them so we could visit all the apiaries 

 by driving the shortest possible distance; that is, five 

 or si.x apiaries might be placed round a central one, 

 or in a way that you could drive or take them all in 

 In one route. Ours, unfortunately, are not so 

 placed, and it gives us Ave or ten miles of an extra 

 drU^e to take them all in; but as the locations 

 suited us better, we thought it would more than 

 overbalance the extra cost of the journey to place 

 them as we did. Each apiary should have a practi- 

 cal man or woman in charge. We have frequently 

 had students look after them, but it pays much 

 better to have assistants with at least one year's ex- 

 perience, as the foreman can not manage to go 

 around to each apiary more than once a week, and 

 sometimes scarcely that, especially if he has to give 

 a day to each apiary, to instruct the one in charge. 

 The assistant in charge has spare time enough on 

 his hands to keep the yard in nice condition, be- 

 sides preparing sections, putting them on, keeping 

 the hives painted, and making new ones when re- 

 quired. We never expect him to do all the work 

 during the honey-flow, but give him assistance in 

 extracting. The more assistance that is required 

 for this purpose, the better the apiary pays. Wheu 

 extracting we use little boys and girls for carrying 

 the combs to and from the hives to the extractor. 

 Two of them, a little larger and a little practiced, 

 do the uncapping and extracting. We have also 

 had boys from ten to twelve years old who could 

 put the combs back into the hives very well after 

 they had been extracted. This class of labor with 

 us is very cheap, and there is generally plenty of 

 it in the neighborhood of every apiary that can be got 

 when required. The youngsters think it as good as 

 a holiday to get an opportunity to work in the bee- 

 yard. With a good practical foreman to visit the 

 yards and see after them, as much can be realized 

 ifrom the out-apiaries as from the home ones. Very 

 often they bring in better returns because they are 



selected on account of their fitness, while your 

 home apiary may ba tolerated only because of its 

 being your " home," rather than the most favor- 

 at)le place for an apiary. Almost any number of 

 apiaries may be managed in this way If the owner 

 is thoroughly practical, and will devote his entire 

 time to the business, or if a good reliable foreman 

 and trusty students can be secured, or, better, those 

 who have had, say, a year's experience. We are 

 satisfied, that, after one has mastered the business, 

 and undei-stands it thoroughly, it his surroundings 

 are suitable he is only fooling away his time with 

 one apiary, as ho can manage several without any 

 more trouble than is required to nuinage one. Ho 

 would require a suitaltle rig, so that in driving to 

 each apiary he could take such supplies as he 

 might reijuire. and in returning could bring any 

 honey that there might be on hand. 



We have parties offering us the privilege of estab- 

 lishing apiaries on their premises, without any 

 charge. One man, where we had an apiai-y for over 

 ten years, sold his place and moved away. He has 

 asked us to come and establish one on his new 

 place, free of charge, knowing as he does the bene- 

 fit that the clovers, fruit-trees, and vines receive 

 from the fertilization of the flowers l)y the bees. 

 The highest that we have ever paid is $3.5 00 a year 

 for bee-houses or cellar to winter in. All the ground 

 that is required is a quarter to half an acre to 

 place the bees on. From $5.00 to $10.00 a year is the 

 usiuil rent where a charge is made at all. Even 

 though a person has a sale for all the extra colo- 

 nies of bees he can spare, it will pay him to have at 

 least one or two out-apiaries, because, if increase 

 is the principal object, the sale of bees will doubly 

 repay the interest on capital invested. Any honey 

 that they may stow away, more than is required, 

 can either be extracted, or the filled combs may be 

 kept for future use, as it is desirable to have some 

 such combs on hand to save feeding colonies that 

 are run more exclusively for honey. We believe 

 that all such apiaries should be managed for both 

 honey and increase, unless the sale of bees is al- 

 most impossible at a very low figure, in which 

 case increase is a thing not so much to be desired. 



OUK BUSHEL BOXES FOR POTATOES. 



SOME KIND WORDS IN REGARD TO THEM, KKOM 

 PROF. CHAMBERLAIN, OF THE IOWA AGRI- 

 CULTURAL COLLEGE. 



jc-l&J'E clip the following from the Countt-y 

 Gentleman of Nov. 10 ; and we here- 

 by extend our thanks, not only to 

 friend Chamberlain, but to the 

 Country Gentleman as well, in giving 

 so flattering a notice of our work : 



I agree with C. E. Chapman, page TTO, in discard- 

 ing grain-sacks for handling potatoes, and wonder 

 that Mr. W'. F. Brown should recommend them 

 after Mr. T. B. Terry's repeated mention and 

 description of hui^hrl lioxes and their uses. The hat- 

 ter are better and more durable than crates; 

 indeed, the very best things, it seems to me, that 

 can be devised. I orderecl 135 for the college 

 this fall, and our foreman tays they will pay 

 their cost this year in the saving of labor 

 in handling about ten acres of experimental 

 potatoes, some ninety varieties. We ordered 

 them of A. I. Root, Medina, O., the manufacturer 

 of bee-supolies. They are of basswood (linden) 

 lumber, half-inch or nine-sixteenths of an inch 

 thick, bound with light galvanized hoop iron. 

 They are sent in distant shipment by freight, "in 

 knock down," boxed all ready to nail together, 

 with nails, binding, and all. compkte, ai\d ernrtly 

 right. The fop edge of the sides of the boxes comes 

 already bound with iron. The edge is gi-ooved a 

 little, and the binding is fitted on by machiiiery as 

 neatly as a tailor would bind n ''oat-rdge and press 

 it. On arrival the boxes are Juailcd t<>gcther and 

 a band is nailed entirely around each end. A 

 hand-hole is cut at the place of manufacture, by 

 machinery, near the upper edge of each end of 

 each box. The boxes are about 10 inches square, 

 and are light, strong, durable, cheap, and most 

 convenient. 1 do not give exact dimensions, be- 

 cause I am now away from home, and do not 

 remember them, and because tho boxes can be 



