GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping in the Southwest 



Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas. 



LOCATING THE HIVES IN AN APIARY. 



Hundreds of pictures of apiaries have 

 been joresented in the bee-journals and oth- 

 er publications from time to time. The 

 writer has always found a certain amount 

 of interest in studying- them, there being 

 quite a difference in the make-up of api- 

 aries of various owners. In other respects 

 they resemble each other very much — for 

 example, in the placing of the liives. Has 

 it not occurred to the readers that the great 

 majority of apiaries are arranged with the 

 hives placed either in rows or sometimes in 

 squares, but with every hive a certain dis- 

 tance from its next neighbor? Are not the 

 most of the hives placed so that every hive 

 looks very much like the next liive or any 

 other hive in the entire apiary? In many 

 instances this " monotony " is broken only 

 by the unfortunate ( ?) presence of such 

 obstacles as shrubbery, trees, buildings, etc. 



Such arrangements have their objections. 

 The worst of these is in the matter of queens 

 entering the wrong hives and being destroy- 

 ed by the strange colony entered. This is the 

 common cause of many colonies becoming 

 queenless, especially after honey harvest. 

 The apiarist can not account for this, as 

 tliere seems to be no special reasan why so 

 many of his colonies should be found with 

 missing queens. The trouble may, however, 

 be attributed to the 

 fact that many 

 queens are supersed- 

 ed after the honey ^y*-*" 

 harvest ; and the 

 queens going out to 

 mate return to the 

 wrong hive because 

 there is too great a 

 similarity betw e e n 

 the different hives 

 adjoining their own. '■ -<<'" 



This is also true dur- 

 ing the swarming 

 season — in fact, at 

 all times of the year 

 when queens are like- 

 ly to come out to 

 mate. 



Another disadvan- 

 tage is that such an 

 arrange m e n t r e- 



take notice of the way her own hive is lo- 

 cated in relation to the next hives, either to 

 one side or the other, as the case may be; 

 and when they return they will be less like- 

 ly to go into the wrong hive. 



To remedy the faults of an apiary ar- 

 ranged either in straight rows, exact 

 square, or on the hexagonal system, the 

 colonies should be so shifted about until 

 the entire yard is arranged in groups of 

 two or three hives. Long rows of hives 

 can easily be treated by simply moving 

 every other two liives closer together, when 

 space permits of tliis being done. If they 

 are too close together already, the best step 

 to take is to remove one hive from between 

 every two hives in the row'. That will leave 

 the remaining hives in pairs, while the re- 

 moved hives can be arranged in new rows. 



The drawing shows an ont-apiai-y fenced 

 off, the wii'es stretched from tree to tree as 

 indicated. Tliere is room to place ten groups 

 of five hives under a like number of trees or 

 clumps of trees in the enclosure. The hives 

 ai'e located so that the greater number of 

 them face southeast. By close obsenation 

 it will be found that three hives facing this 

 way are placed in a row " in front " of tlie 

 trees. Another hive, facing northeast, is 

 l)laced slightly in the rear to the right, 

 while a fifth hive, facing southwest, is plac- 



Ill 



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quires a lot of room vmless the hives are 

 placed close together. The closer together, 

 the worse the trouble, however. The better 

 way is to place the hives in pairs. Even 

 groups of threes are better. A queen com- 

 ing out of any hive in such a gi'oup will 



ed in a like position just opposite. Enough 

 space is left between the l)acks of the hives 

 and the trees to enable free passage and 

 sufficient room for working over them. 



[Half-tone engravings illustrating this 

 plan will appear in the next issue. — Ed.] 



