102 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



the evening cool and windy, hundreds 

 of bees may be found on the ground 

 in front of the hive, perhaps loaded 

 with pollen, but exhausted from the 

 flight and chilled with cold. As they 

 approach the hive they relax their 

 exertions, and a light whiff of wind 

 dashes them to the ground, from which 

 they are unable to arise, and before 

 the sun could warm them up the next 

 morning they will be dead. If you 

 have no shade for your bees, it would 

 be best to plant fruit trees among 

 them. These would not only supply 

 them with pollen and honey in bloom- 

 ing time, but it would make accept- 

 able shade in hot summer days. An- 

 other thing is apparent, the fruit 

 would be a remuneration. The bees 

 would fructify the trees and make 

 them to bear plentifully, while in re- 

 turn the trees would afford to the 

 bees that shade which they so much 

 require, from the burning rays of the 

 sun. My apiary is located in a val- 

 ley, and 1 am thus sheltered from the 

 north and west winds, and the bees 

 have it down hill when coming home 

 with their loads. There are thou- 

 sands of the basswood trees, poplar, 

 sumac, maple, etc., all around my 

 apiary on both sides of the hills or 

 mountains. 



Sang Run, 31 d. 



Eight inches is a very convenient 

 height to set hives. It makes them 

 much easier to manipulate, and one 

 does not get a backache from continu- 

 ally bending over so far. The grass in 

 your bee yard should be kept closely 

 cut, and hives look better if set 

 on light stands made for the pur- 

 pose. 



The W. T. Falconer Men'f'g 

 Co., Jamestown, N. Y. Gentlemen — 

 1 inclose 50 cents herewith for the 

 Bee-Keeper. While there is con- 

 siderable said in the Bee-Keeper 

 and other journals for the benefit of 

 beginners, there are some essential 

 things left unmentioned, and by giv- 

 ing my recent experience some of the 

 points may be noticed. The first ad- 

 vice I would give is, don't believe 

 half that is published in bee journals, 

 or books, until by experience you 

 know the ideas to be correct. Before 

 the war of the rebellion I kept bees 

 quite extensively in box hives. Dur- 

 ing my absence of three years, which 

 I served in the army, my apiary be- 

 came defunct. Since then, until two 

 years ago, I had nothing' to do with 

 bees. I then purchased three colo- 

 nies of a neighbor, in box hives, in- 

 tending to get a start from them and 

 get into frame hives, so that I could 

 manipulate at pleasure. I made four 

 hives, calculating that from what I 

 knew of bees I would get a swarm or 

 two from each of the old ones, and 

 one from the first swarm, and in the 

 meantime 1 could be making hives as 

 fast as I would need them. For the 

 first four hives I made the frames to 

 hang across the hive, and they were 

 flat top frames. In due time I had a 

 colony in each of the hives, and soon 

 found that my frame hive was no 

 good, from the fact that the comb was 

 made across the frames, tying them 



