THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



331 



A THOUSAND-DOLLAR MISTAKE. 



I have no desire to chang-e any of the 

 above fixtures. When I first started to 

 establish out-apiaries, I began making- 

 chaff hives, exactly after the pattern 

 that the leaders sold upon the market, 

 and I kept on until nearly two hun- 

 dred had been made. Today, all ex- 

 cept about two dozen are made over 

 into single- walled hives and shade 

 boards. The making of these chaff 

 hives was the biggest mistake I ever 

 made during all my bee-keeping life. 

 It would take well up to a thousand 

 dollars to pay for this one mistake. 

 Bees winter far better when carried 

 into a little shed, open to the south, and 

 each colony packed over head with 

 planer shavings, with good ventilation 

 between the cover and the shavings, 

 thus allowing all the moisture to 

 escape from the planer shavings, than 

 they winter in chaff hives and it is 

 far cheaper. The chaff hive is very 

 cumbersome to handle, besides, when 

 an extra hard winter comes, it will 

 "find you out. " 



The swarming problem, which has 

 been such an apparent terror to us, is 

 gradually sinking into insignificance. 

 When we visited each yard each alter- 

 nate dajs swarming was easil3^ man- 

 aged, and we secured quite fair results. 

 However, there was some "leakage" 

 along this line, and I am practicing 

 shook-swarming with some good re- 

 sults, although it is not altogether sat- 

 isfactory. Some few persist in having 

 a daily swarm, or they build drone 

 comb and fool the time away. I am 

 looking for more light along this line; 

 will some one please turn on the 

 "switch ?" 



TIPPING OVER HIVES TO DISCOVER 

 OUEEN CELLS. 



While making shook-swarms, I found 

 it considerable work to take off from 

 one to four supers, in order to get 

 down into the brood nest and find out 

 if queeo cells are being built, and I 



therefore put myself to work seeking 

 an easier method. I now use what I 

 call a "tilting board." Two persons 

 walk up to the hive, thrust the bottom 

 end of the tilting board under the back 

 end of the hive, tip all carefully back- 

 wards, and take off the bottom board 

 when the bottom of the brood chamber 

 stares you squarely in the face. In 

 one minute's time the operator can tell 

 whether the swarming fever has set in 

 or not. The hive bottom is then put 

 back in place, and all let down again 

 upon the four bricks as before. While 

 going over the yard, all colonies that 

 have eggs or larvae in queen cells are 

 swarmed. Two men would be able to 

 attend a thousand swarms worked in 

 this way for comb honey, if the yards 

 are not too distant. 



We use horses to draw all loads to 

 and from the yards; and when the 

 horses are not needed to draw a load, 

 a motor car or automobile is used, and 

 is a greathelp in catchingup. Itsaves 

 the horses nearly altogether for load- 

 work. The 'mobile is decidedly the 

 best mode of travel among out-yards 

 when no loads are to be drawn. 



HOW TO START AN OUT-APIARY. 



When the bee-keeper has 150 colonies 

 at home, he is in position to start an 

 out-yard. Here is the way to start: 

 When spring is at hand, have all hives 

 in readiness, and haul them to the 

 ground where the new yard is to be 

 located, also taking twenty good col- 

 onies of bees from the old yard. Order 

 from some good, reliable queen breeder 

 in the South, eighty untested queens to 

 reach your station just at the begin- 

 ning of the white clover flow. After 

 your queens have arrived, go to the 

 new 3'ard, and carry two good frames 

 of brood, bees and all, to each new 

 hive, leaving the old queen on the old 

 stand with two of the combs containing 

 the least brood. This will furnish you 

 eighty new colonies or nuclei, for the 

 new queens that have arrived. Shut 



