1S9S. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



thing that the bees are liable to glue 

 together with propolis. When this is 

 dene the parts are always loose and 

 may be easily taken out or moved. 



I found this out by an accident in- 

 stead of by an experiment. I had a 

 box of Hoffman frames, in flat, in my 

 shop. A can of castor oil was on the 

 bench above the box of frames. It was 

 accidentally ovei turned and the oil 

 went into a box of frames. The next 

 season I noticed that wherever the oil 

 had touched the parts there was little 

 or no propolis. And the little there was 

 would peel off very readily. I have 

 tried this now for three years with 

 very satisfactory results. 



Franklin, Pa. 



l/ocations Suited to the Keeping 

 of Bees. 



Fmiii Farmers' Bulletin, No. 59. 



BY FHANK BENTON. 



It may be safely said that any p^ace 

 where f aiming, gardening or fruit lais- 

 ing can be successfully followed is 

 adapted to the profitable keeping of 

 bees — in a limited way at least, if not 

 extensively. Many of these localities 

 will support extensive apiaries. In ad- 

 dition to this there are, within the bor- 

 ders of the United States, thousands of 

 good locations for the apiarist — forest, 

 prairie, swamp and mountain regions — 

 where agiicu ture has as yet not gained 

 a foothold either because of remote- 

 ness from markets or the uninviting 

 character of soil or climate. This pur- 

 suit may also be followed in or near 

 towns and, to a limited extent, in large 

 cities. It even happens in seme in- 

 stances that bees in cities or towns find 

 more abundant pasturage than in 

 country locations which are considered 

 fair. 



The city of Washington is an ex- 

 ample of this, bees located here doing 

 better during the spring and summer 

 months than those in the surrounding 

 country, owing to the bee pasturage 

 found in the numerous gardens and 

 parks and the nectar-yielding shade 

 trees along the streets. This is due 

 mainly to the fact that the linden, or 

 basswood, which is rarely seen in the 

 country about Washington, has been 

 planted extensively in the parks and 

 for miles on both sides of many of the 

 streets and avenues in the city. An- 

 other source in the city not found ex- 

 tensively in the country adjacent is 

 melilot, Bokhara or sweet clover (Meli- 

 lotus alba), which has crept into va- 

 cant lots and neglected corners, and 

 spreads about its agreeable perfume to 

 the delight of all city dwellers, whether 

 human or insect. The writer has prac- 

 ticed with profit the transportation of 

 nearly 100 colonies from a country 

 apiary ten miles distant to Washington 

 for the linden and sweet clover yield. 

 He has also seen a prosperous apiary 

 kept on the roof of a business house in 

 the heart of New York City, and on 

 several occasions has visited another 

 apiary of thirty to forty colonies, 

 which a skillful apiarist had located on 

 the roof of his store in the business 

 portion of Cincinnati, O., and from 

 which thirty to forty pounds of honey 

 per colony were usually obtained each 

 year. 



Another apiary personally inspected 

 was located directly on the sand banks 

 forming the eastern shore of Lake 

 Michigan. These bees were, of course, 

 unable to foiage westward from the 

 apiary, hence had but half "a field." 

 The soil of the area over which the 

 bees ranged was a light sand, unpro- 

 ductive for most crops, and the region 

 was little developed agriculturally, 

 most of the honey coming from forest 

 trees and from shrubs and wild plants 

 growing in old burnings and windfalls, 

 yet twenty-five to thirty pounds of ex- 

 cellent honey per colony was the usual 



