Jan. 4, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



the smallest number of bees are placed in the 

 upper tier, or at the top. 



I have found by years of experience that 

 if a strong colony becomes uneasy while in 

 the top tier, it may be (juieted by puttinff it on 

 the cellar bottom; and that a small colony, 

 which is in a roar of disturbance, can be caused 

 to become as " still as death " by raising- it from 

 the bottom of the cellar to the top. Also clos- 

 ing- most of the ventilation from the hive hav- 

 ing the small colony will cause it to become 

 quiet ; and removing the whole top from an 

 uneasy strong colony will cause them to quiet 

 down and cluster compactly together for the 

 rest of the winter. 



But all this should be attended to when the 

 bees are put in the cellar, by putting them in 

 their proper places, and ventilating each hive 

 as we believe it may require. If, in spite of all 

 this precaution, some of them begin to spot the 

 hive, I will say that, after trying all plans of 

 cure, I novp let them alone, for I consider it only 

 a waste of time to fuss with them. 



If the reader does not agree, he can try giv- 

 ing them a flight in a warm room. Fix a box 

 to set on top of the hive, the same having a 

 glass top ; or should a vrarm day occur carry 

 the bees out for a flight ; but after all this has 

 been done the bees will generally be dead be 

 fore June, if they have the diarrhea badly 

 enough to spot their combs and the inside of 

 the hive during midwinter or earlier. 



One thing which is always against this 

 fussing with single colonies of bees wintering 

 in the cellar which have become diseased, is 

 that by "doctoring " these, the disturbance re- 

 quired is apt to cause the other colonies to be- 

 come uneasy, and cause them to become dis- 

 eased also, while otherwise they would have 

 gone thru the winter quiet and all right. 



A change of food is sometimes beneficial; 

 but, as I said before, the greatest success comes by using 

 the precaution named when putting them in the cellar, 

 and then letting them entirely alone, as far as individual 

 colonies are concerned after they are once prepared for 

 winter. 



It is well to enter the cellar where the bees are winter- 

 ing as often as once in two weeks to a month, to see that 

 everything is all right as to no mice, rats, and the tempera- 

 ture, which should be kept as nearly as possible from 40 to 

 48 degrees, Fahr. A cellar in which the temperature can be 

 kept from 43 to 45 degrees is as nearly perfect along the 

 line of temperature as can possibly be according to an ex- 

 perience of nearly 30 years with myself and others here in 

 central New York. If the bees are wintering outdoors on 

 the summer stands, and they contract the diarrhea, I am 

 positive nothing can help them short of a warm day in 

 which they can fly freely. And even this will not save 

 them if they become very badly diseased before such a 

 warm day comes. But if such a day occurs at about the 

 time they become uneasy enough to break the winter clus- 

 ter, then they will generally come thru all right, especially 

 if they can have a chance to fly every two or three weeks 

 thereafter. 



I have tried all sorts of plans to cure colonies having 

 the bee-diarrhea that were on the summer stand, such as 

 making a box to fit the hives at the top, the same having 

 the front and top sides covered with glass ; placing said box 

 on the hive on sunshiny days, and if the rays of the sun 

 did not give heat enough, putting- inside heated bricks 

 wrapt in cloth, till the bees would come out in the box, 

 making everything black and nasty thru their voiding ex- 

 crement, when the whole was allowed to cool gradually 

 down, and at night the box was taken off and the hive fixt 

 as snug and warm as possible ; but in the spring I could 

 not see that such colonies were any better than others 

 which had the disease equally bad, but were left entirely 

 alone, as death generally was the fate of all. 



Then I have tried a change of food, taking away all 

 their stores and substituting that from other colonies or 

 combs of honey stored away in the honey-house, or giving 

 them stores of candy or sugar syrup, but in none of these 

 trials could I feel sure that they were any better ofl' than 

 were the diseased ones which were left entirely without any 

 " doctoring." 



Bees, to be perfectly healthy when wintered on the 

 summer stands, should have a chance to fly as often as once 



Mr. Whitney holding a frame of Comb and Jiees for a Photograph. 



in every four weeks, but they will usually be in good order 

 if they have no chance to fly from Nov. 15 to Feb. 1. But 

 if this time is lengthened from Oct. 22 to April 7, as we 

 once had it here, very few colonies will be alive at the end 

 of the last-named date. This year I had bees alive in 15 

 hives out of 93 wintered outside on the first day of May ; 

 but there were not enough bees in the 15 hives to make 

 three good colonies. But that very same year I put out of 

 the cellar, on May 5th to 7th, 52 good, strong colonies out 

 of 54 put in the first of the previous November, with cellar 

 and bees fixt as given above. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



No. 3.— An Apiary— How to Make the Most Out 

 of It. 



BY " OLD GRIMES." 



THERE are four sources of revenue from an apiary — 

 honey, wax, queens and bees. The great majority of 

 bee-keepers work their colonies for honey, while the 

 wax is an incidental product, and queen-rearing is workt by 

 the specialist. If the sale of colonies is depended upon for 

 revenue, the demand is generally limited, and the demand 

 in that direction is soon supplied. 



It is a foregone conclusion that the bee-keeper who 

 wishes to get revenue out of his colonies will not only have 

 many of them, but many apiaries. A business that is worth 

 running upon a small scale will pay proportionately well 

 upon a large scale, provided the bee-keeper's ability rounds 

 I out so as to keep the balance. 



It certainly would be folly to expect success from an 

 apiary located where there are few honey-plants ; the field 

 should be carefully lookt over, and the apiary located with 

 as much care as would be exercised in providing pas- 

 turage for a herd of cattle or a flock of fatting sheep. 



Having located properly, the next thing is to lay out the 

 apiary upon a systematic and labor-saving plan. Wherever 

 the lay of the land will admit of it— and it will admit if it is 

 sought for — the apiary should be laid out according to the 

 Grimes plan — in circles. 



The center circle is 12 feet in diameter, and the hives 

 face to the center. The next circle faces out, leaving an 

 operating lane five feet wide. The next circle six feet away 

 facing in, and in like manner additional circles and lanes 

 for one or two hundred colonies. As the hives face differ- 



