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QEORUB W. YORK. Editor. 





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40th YEAR, 



CHICAGO, ILL,, APRIL 26, 1900, 



No, 17. 



A Satisfactory Shed Apiary in Nebraska. 



BY WM. STOI,I,EY. 



MANY years ago a picture of my apiary was reproduced 

 in the American Bee Journal, but it was not anything- 

 like the most excellent pictures nowadays broug-ht to 

 view in the " Old Reliable." 



The photog-raph of ray apiary shown herewith was 

 taken in August, and g^ives a view from the northwest side. 

 The building shown in the rear is the workshop and honey- 

 house. In front, to the left, is a winter vault with sis colo- 

 nies in the New Heddon hives for comb-honey production. 

 This picture was taken by a friend (a preacher) who visited 

 me at the time, and who broug-ht his camera along-. The 

 one with the white vest is the preacher, the lady is his wife, 

 and the other fellow is myself. 



The middle section of the shed is 30 feet in length, 

 fronting- due east. The right hand wing, also 30 feet in 



length, fronts somewhat to the northeast, and the left hand 

 wing- of 30 feet in length fronts to the southeast. 



I aim to restrict the number of colonies in my apiary to 

 30, or even a less number, w/iicli are always in the lower 

 row. The upper row is manipulated at the proper time for 

 the rearing of queens for my own use only. For this pur- 

 pose I have single-walled hives carrying only eight combs, 

 while 15 of those in the lower tier carry 11 frames each, and 

 the other 15 have 14 frames each. The combs in the brood- 

 chamber are 11 'ixllJi inches clear within the frames, and 

 all surplus combs for extracting are half the depth of the 

 brood-combs. All hives are provided with two supers, and 

 everything about them is interchangeable. 



The 30 hives occupied by bees, as seen in the lower tier, 

 are double walled, but not chaff packt in summer. All hives 

 are well painted with different colors, and are numbered 

 from 1 to 30, on movable zinc plates. 



I never move or change the position of the double- 

 walled hives in the lower tier, and aim to retain queens on 

 their stand as long as they are allowed to do service. 



All my queens are kept dipt, and only in exceptional 

 cases do I allow queens to do service longer than two years. 



I rear my queens from the four best colonies in the api- 

 ary, using two colonies for rearing queens, and two other 

 colonies of different strains for drone rearing. By follow- 

 ing up of this method for about 12 years I have improved 

 my stock greatlj'. Every other year I aim to get new blood 



Mr. Will. Stolley and His Shed Apiary, located in Hall County, Nebraska. 



