38 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



Fehruar, 



surplus obtained. At one time the 

 writer had an apiary in the city of De- 

 troit, Mich., where the wide river on 

 one side cut off nearly half of the pas- 

 turage, yet the bees did well. And 

 again for several years he had an api- 

 ary containing from 100 to 200 colonies 

 of bees on a very sterile coast of the 

 Island of Cyprus, and another nearly 

 as large located but a few rods from 

 the seashore on a rocky point of Syria. 

 Both of these apiaries were devoted in 

 the main to queen rearing, yet the 

 yield of honey was not an unimportant 

 item, especially in the Syrian apiary, 

 while in the Cyprus apiary some honey 

 was frequently taken, and it was rarely 

 necessary to feed the bees for store. In 

 the latter case about one-fourth of the 

 range was cut off by the sea, the bees 

 being located at the head of an open 

 bay and a short distance from the 

 shore, while the location of the Syrian 

 apiary prevented the bees from secur- 

 ing half of the usual range, hence their 

 greater prosperity was due to the na- 

 ture and quantity of the pasturage of 

 their limited range. 



It is evident, therefore, that no one 

 similarly located need be deterred from 

 keeping bees, provided the nectar- 

 yielding trees and plants of the half 

 range are of the right sort and abun- 

 dant. Moreover, regions so rough and 

 sterile or so swampy as to give no en- 

 couragement to the agriculturist, or 

 even to the stock raiser, will often 

 yield a good income to the bee-keeper, 

 insignificant and apparently worthless 

 herbs and shrubs furnishing forage for 

 the bees. The ability of the bees to 

 range over areas inaccessible to other 

 farm stock and to draw their susten- 

 ance from dense forests when the tim- 

 ber is of the right kind, and the free- 

 dom which, because of their nature, 

 must be accorded them to pasture on 

 whatever natural sources are within 

 their range of three or four miles, must 

 be taken into account in estimating the 

 possibilities of a locality. It will be 

 (oqnd that very few localities exist in 



our country where at least a few colo 

 nies of bees may not be kept. Whethe 

 a large number might be profitabl; 

 kept in a given locality can only bi 

 decided by a careful examination as t( 

 the honey-producing flora within rang' 

 of the apiary. 



ITEMJ or INTERE5T. 



Dadant, in the A. B. J., says some 

 thing over one pound of wax is ob 

 tained from the cappings of each 10 

 pounds of honey extracted. Our ex 

 perience accords with the rule. 

 — o — 



Australian Bee Bulletin. — "If you d 

 not wish to increase your swarms, o 

 to weaken your hives for the hone 

 flow, place the swarm alongside th 

 parent colony, cut out every queen ce) 

 in the parent colony, and in the even 

 ing place the swarm as a super on to 

 of the parent colony." 

 — o — 



J. G. Hurstville of Australia recentlj 

 by request, made a small shipment o 

 honey to a friend in England, wh 

 says they cannot get good honey there 

 We predict that this item, from th 

 Australian Bee Bulletin, will result ii 

 a general comparison of the relativ 

 merits of Australian and Englisl 

 honey. What's the matter witl 

 heather? , 



William McNally, in the British Bee 

 Keepers' Record, favors the "ne\ 

 style" section, but would embody th 

 "continuous passage" feature by using 

 instead of the "fence," a separato 

 without cleats, and having attached ti 

 it, by glue, small blocks, 3-16x3-8, oi 

 either side to take bearing against th 

 corners of the sections when clampe( fi 

 in the super. This idea is in line witl 

 the Aspinwall system, so clearly dc 

 scribed and illustrated in the Deconi 

 ber Review. Mr. Aspinwall's arran.i;c 

 ment certainly has the appearance o , i 

 being perfection. I | 



