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OEOROE W. VORK, Editor. 



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40th YEAR, 



CHICAGO, ILL, FEBRUARY 8, 1900, 



No, 6. 



A Wisconsin Apiary and its Management. 



BY K. D. OCHSNER. 



FATHER and I are the only prominent bee-keepers 

 around here, so we have everything- our own way. We 

 have five yards — four out-apiaries and one in the vil- 

 lage — with, I think, nearly 400 colonies at present, mostly 

 Italians, which are very quiet bees to work with, but not 

 superior in honey-gathering over the blacks or the cross. 



Now, in regard to our honey harvest : 'We have white 

 clover in June, and basswood the last of June or the first 

 week in July, which lasts about IS or 20 days ; and later on 

 we have the usual fall bloom, which is not much except in 

 two out-apiaries, the yard pictured here — Indian Mound 

 apiary — being the best, I think, as it faces south to miles 

 of bottom lands, east to marshes, and north and west to 

 buckwheat. This yard has about 80 colonies in Langstroth 

 hives, mostly 8-frame, which I consider the best all-round 

 hive for size and convenience. 



The bees in the apiary shown herewith are run for only 

 comb honey. They are splendidly located on a sandy hill, 

 with lots of shade around, and high 

 enough so that we made a fine bee-cave 

 in the north side of the yard, facing 

 north, as such is the easiest to keep 

 cool in spring. It is 28x8 and 8 feet 

 high, has two entrances, and will hold 

 100 colonies without crowding, and 

 winter well, mostly on account of the 

 sandy soil where it is made, and be- 

 cause it is walled up with plank and so 

 is never damp, as are most of the un- 

 der-ground places. 



Some bee-keepers want to make a 

 bee-cave too fine, and so put up stone 

 ■walls and cement floor instead of a 

 tight floor of boards, so of course bad 

 results may be expected. 



There are two roofs over our bee- 

 cave, the first one covered with a foot 

 or so of dry sand, then about two feet 

 of dry oak-leaves, and then the second 

 roof, which you see above the ground, 

 and is water-proof. This cellar has 

 never been too cold for the little work- 

 ers even in so cold a snap as we had 

 last winter. 



The cave has two ventilators above, which I fprgot to 

 mention. Also, I am standing in front of the yard. 



Two of the best yards are run for extracted honey, and 

 we never put on an upper story without a queen-excluding 

 honey-board. I think if more would use excluders there- 

 would be a finer grade of extracted honey put on the market, 

 for we all know that dark extracting-frames make dark 

 honey. 



I tried one yard last summer on the no-swarming 

 plan, by cutting cells every 8 days in the honey-flow, and I 

 am well pleased ; but I think two things helpt me — they 

 were extracting-hives, and had dipt queens. 



I like outside wintering above anything else, and have 

 just made more chaff hives. Bees came thru in chaff' hives 

 strong last winter, but were poorly in 'the cellar. Nearly 

 half of ours were wintered on the summer stands. 



Foul brood we have never had, and honey-dew but 

 once. Sauk Co., Wis. 



No. 6.— The Honey-House— How to Get the Most 

 Out of It. 



BY "OLD GRIMKS." 



WHEN the apiary grows to a condition of profit some 

 sort of a special building is necessary for storing the 

 honey and appliances, and for performing the vari- 

 ous branches of work connected with the apiary. 



If the bee-keeper looks forward to the expansion of his 

 business into many apiaries, then so much more need of a 



The shanty cost only SIO.OO, and 

 makes a work-shop and a place to sleep. 

 It is under the shade of two large oaks. 



Indian Monnd Apiary, of E. U. Ochsncr, Sauk Co., Wis. 



