THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



243 



same treatment, they have made 

 nearly all my comb honey. I cannot 

 but think that, had I a dryer and 

 more favorable position for my hives, 

 the Italians would make a better 

 showing."^ As I am situated, only bees 

 which enter boxes readily, and stay 

 in them during cool nights, promise 

 success. I can readily believe the 

 reports of others in different localities 

 concerning the boxworking tenden- 

 cies of their Italians. The swarming 

 tendency of bees is largely dependent 

 on the position of the apiary. I 

 know a man who has his bees in a 

 dense thicket of trees and grape vines, 

 where no sun shines in, and the bees 

 have hard work to find a path out. 

 He gets hardly any new swarms, 

 while if he would set his hives out in 

 the sun in a dry and warm place, he 

 would have new swarms enough. 



The raising of the hives from the 

 ground has a great deal to do, I 

 think, with success in getting comb 

 honey. Most of the bee-books direct 

 that the hive be placed directly on 

 the ground or on narrow strips a few 

 inches from the ground. 



A captivating authority on bees 

 advises that sawdust be banked about 

 the hive ; a moisture-holding and 

 damp material when placed on damp 

 soil. A friend of mine sent for his 

 first hive of bees, and, following his 

 A, B and C literally, placed the hive 

 flat on the ground near a bog-hole, 

 and under the shade of a too Iriendly 

 tree. Is there any evidence that 

 bees were designed to be ground 

 insects? Where do they make their 

 home in their wild state, in holes in 

 the ground or in high trees ? Do not 

 bees know what they are about when 



they invariably alight high and dry 

 in the air, and select as their home 

 the hollow of a tree away from the 

 ground's dampness ? I have noticed 

 that farmers, who have box-hives 

 roaring hot with bees early in spring, 

 have their hives up on a plank two 

 feet at least from the ground. 



I believe the place for hives on 

 ordinary soils is up away from the 

 ground. I noticed in Mr. Alley's 

 apiary that his bees were off of the 

 ground a foot or more. For several 

 years I kept my hives on the ground 

 where ihe damp chill of night would 

 settle round them, and under the 

 shade of trees at that. My premises 

 being limited, that seemed the only 

 place where I could have them. A 

 neighbor of mine had his hives on a 

 dry knoll, just such a place as a man 

 would choose on which to erect a tent, 

 sunny and airy. He beat me right 

 along every year in section honey; 

 sometimes he would get twenty-five 

 pounds a hive when mine would 

 make scarcely any. A year ago I built 

 a wooden horse about four feet high, 

 in a sunny and airy spot of my yard 

 and in the dryest part of it, and put 

 my hives on it. They wintered well 

 there and came out strong this spring 

 in double-wall hives with chaff cush- 

 ions. This season I took off one 

 hundred two-pound sections from the 

 six hives I had on the high horse 

 which was far exceeding anything 

 I had been able to do before ; 

 for, in addition to the disadvantages 

 under which I had labored, our 

 pasturage hereabouts is not a very 

 rich one. My experience has con- 

 vinced me that hives run for comb 

 honey should be raised away from 



