THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



217 



wrong hive of the same pair ; and, in- 

 deed, there is little more reason why 

 thev should make this latter mistake 

 than that they should forget in what 

 part of their own hive the entrance is 

 situated. Thus it will be seen that 

 pairs of hives may be placed as near 

 together as single hives, without 

 trouble arising from bees mistaking 

 the hive to which they belong. This 

 gives a great economy of the ground 

 occupied by the apiary, and of the 

 travel required in working in it. 



2. A stand can be as easily made 

 for two hives as for one, and will be 

 more stable. I use Langstroth liives, 

 and my stands consist of four wooden 

 stakes driven into the ground, leaving 

 6 or H inches projecting, thus forming 

 a rectangle about lo inches by 3 feet, 

 and with two 4 foot pickets nailed 

 against the sides of their tops. Across 

 the pickets the hives are placed, the 

 front picket being an inch lower than 

 the back one. By the use of a level, 

 and by lowering any of the stakes 

 that may need it, after ' they have 

 been driven in by guess, a stand of 

 this kind is easily made of any de- 

 sired height, made perfectly level 

 laterally, and having any desired 

 pitch from rear to front ; and it will 

 remain true without any further at- 

 tention throughout the season. 



3. The placing of hives in pairs 

 greatly facilitates the protection of 

 their contents from both heat and 

 cold. My hives have the ordinary 

 Langstroth cap, and I use the Hed- 

 don cases as supers. When the heat 

 of summer comes on, by simply taking 

 out one side of each cap, and' putting 

 the cap on each hive with tlie open 

 side toward its companion hive, very 

 efficient protection is afforded to the 

 cases both from too great heating by 

 the sun in the day-time and too great 

 cooling by radiation at night, or on 

 cool, cloudy days. The inner sides of 

 the cases and caps of each pair of 

 hives protect each other in both these 

 ways, while there is a chance for suf- 

 ficient circulation of air around the 

 cases to moderate the heat of the sun 

 at mid-day. When more than one 

 case is on, if the honey-board has no 

 cleats to serve the purpose, it is a 

 little better to have cleats or nails 

 driven part way in, on the under side 



, of the top of the cap, to support it a 

 little above the honey-board, giving 

 an air-space between. The remaining 

 three sides of each cap give protec- 

 tion to the outer side and ends of the 

 case over which the cap is placed, or 

 to the upper case and the upper part 

 of the next one beneath, where there 

 is more than one case on. The re- 

 moved side of the cap can be made to 

 serve a useful purpose by leaning it 

 against the outer side of the hive, 

 resting on the ends of the picket sup- 

 ports ; and in the fall it mav be par- 

 tially nailed in its place on the cap to 

 give better protection to the top of 

 the hive. This modified cap is easily 

 and quickly slipped off and on hori- 

 zontally, or nearly so, thus avoiding 

 the objections to the telescoping ar- 

 rangement : and it requires no weight 

 on it to keep it from being blown off 

 by the wind, as the open side is al- 

 ways sheltered from the wind. It 



has this further advantage over the 

 wide shade-board held in place by a 

 heavy stone— by inverting it upon the 

 ground, one of its corners affords a 

 narrow support on which to place the 

 cases, without (hmger of crushing 

 many bees, while working in the 

 brood-chamber. The placing of hives 

 in pairs also gives similar advantages, 

 and especially a great saving of 

 material in the protection ot the bees 

 from cold by packirig around the 

 hives, etc., in the fall, winter or 

 spring. J3y packing well the small 

 space between the hives and putting 

 a single close division-board in the 

 outer side of each hive, better pro- 

 tection is afforded than two division- 

 boards will give in a single hive 

 standing alone, and this is all that is 

 needed for fall or spring, where bees 

 are wintered in a cellar. Where they 

 are left out through the winter, by also 

 packing the space under the hives, put- 

 ting stakes, or stakes and boards, near 

 the back end of each pair and filling in 

 with straw, and putting a few inches 

 of chaff or leaves in the caps, very 

 nearly an equivalent of the very best 

 chaff hives is secured for wintering 

 with very little labor and expense, 

 and with the use of a comparatively 

 small amount of packing material. 



4. With hives in pairs, as free ac- 

 cess as there is any need of may be 

 had to every hive ; while in working 

 with any hive its companion hive is a 

 handy stand on which to place the 

 requisite tools. I find a wooden tray, 

 made of a honey-board with a narrow 

 rim nailed on around its edges very 

 convenient for carrying smoker, 

 smoker-wood, screw-drivers, jack- 

 knife, etc., around in the apiary. By 

 tacking some yielding supports on the 

 under side of this, such as a small 

 roll of cloth near each end, it can be 

 set on the top of a hive, and articles 

 taken from it and put back upon it, 

 without jarring the hive enough to 

 disturb the bees. 



It will be seen that all the advan- 

 tages which I have here specified, re- 

 sulting from the placing of hives In 

 pairs, are such as tend to simplify and 

 minimize the work required in attend- 

 ing to large apiaries. 



Winnebago, 5 Ills. 



For tue American Bee JourDaL. 



Bees and Clover. 



C. 31. WEED. 



Darwin and other eminent observ- 

 ers have repeatedly demonstrated 

 that the flowers of most plants must 

 be cross-fertilized with pollen from 

 flowers of other plants of the same 

 species, to produce the most and best 

 seed. Repeated experiments have 

 been made to determine whether 

 seeds would form without this cross- 

 fertilization, and the result has usually 

 been that very few or none liave set ; 

 especially is this true of our common 

 red clover which is, as a rule, fer- 

 tilized, or pollenized as some would 

 have us say, by bumblebees. All are 

 familiar with the oft-repeated tale of 

 the introduction of bumble-bees into 

 Australia, in order that clover seed 

 might be produced there Instead of 



importing it annually. Much the 

 same effect has been observed in cer- 

 tain portions of our own country re- 

 specting the introduction of Italian 

 races of bees. The tongues of these 

 banded foreigners being longer than 

 those of the native blacks, they could 

 reach the nectar at the base of the 

 clover corollas, and as a consequence 

 they foraged upon it and aided the 

 bumble-bees in their work of cross- 

 fertilization. 



Rev. L. L. Langstroth, so fittingly 

 called the Father of American apicul- 

 ture, once told the writer that about 

 Oxford, Ohio, the area over which the 

 Italian bees foraged was plainly in- 

 dicated by the increased production 

 of clover seed. 



A few years since. Dr. W. J. Beal, 

 who introduces his students every 

 year into the great fields of original 

 investigation, requested some of them 

 to investigate the comparative num- 

 ber of seeds set by clover with and 

 without the presence of bees. In 

 one of these Instances eight heads 

 which had been protected from Insect 

 visitors, yielded only five seeds, while 

 eight neighboring unprotected heads 

 yielded i;:i6 seeds. Other experiments 

 Iiointed to the same conclusion. The 

 Doctor, in referring to the subject in 

 one of his public addresses, said : 

 " These experiments, with those of 

 Darwin and others, make it appear 

 as though bees helped to fertilize the 

 flowers of white and red clover, and 

 cause the plants to set seeds more 

 freely. If bumble-bees do more good 

 than harm, as we liave very good rea- 

 son to believe, we should encourage 

 their production. Bumble-bees prefer 

 the old nests of meadow mice. It has 

 been suggested that we should not 

 keep cats nor allow hawks, foxes and 

 dogs to catch tliese mice, whicli make 

 nests so necessary for the bumble- 

 bees wliich help fertilize our red 

 clover." 



If this be true, should not the howl 

 of discontent so frequently raised 

 against apiarists,by some farmers and 

 fruit-growers, be speedily silenced V 

 These persons claim that the bees In 

 foraging on their lands steal the 

 sweets from their crops without any 

 recompense ; but they do not realize 

 that in the very act of the so-called 

 theft, the bee repays them a thousand 

 times for the paltry sweet which na- 

 ture has placed there for this very 

 purpose. At the recent meeting of 

 Illinois horticulturists, it was stated 

 that one of the most prominent fruit- 

 growers of the State considered the 

 presence of bees essential to a full 

 crop of fruit, and many present coin- 

 cided in the opinion. Would those 

 worthy agriculturists whose indigna- 

 tion rises apace at the fancied loss im- 

 posed on them by their neighbor's 

 bees, prefer to have their meadows 

 over-run with meadow-mice to furnish 

 breeding places for bumble-bees, that 

 would certainly trouble grazing cattle 

 nearly as much as would the imported 

 Italians ? 



Chicago, c! Ills. 



|^~ The Mahoning Valley Bee -Keepers' 

 Association, will hold its next meeting at 

 Newton Falls, Ohio, on Thursday, May 28, 

 1885. B. W. TuKNEii, Sec. 



