110 



IRE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



to extract and shave the combs down 

 to an exact width is more than made 

 up in the ease with winch they can be 

 manipulated afterward. 



Mass. 



J. E. Pond Jr. 



LOCATION OF AN APIARY, 



1 am aware that it is not the season 

 of the year to discuss this subject, as 

 those who have intended to begin bee- 

 keeping this season have already well 

 started in the business, but perhaps 

 some are thinking of starting by pur- 

 chasing new swarms, and to those I 

 wish to say something on the subject. 

 It is generally a poor location for bee- 

 keeping where bees have to go east- 

 ward for pasturage, as nine out of ten 

 of our thunder showers are from the 

 west, and where the bees are out a 

 mile and the storm comes up quickly, 

 it usually meets the heavily laden 

 workers before they reach the hive 

 and many are. thus destroyed. In fact 

 I do not doubt but that in some in- 

 stances where bees go eastward for 

 their supplies and are caught in a 

 storm late in the day which is followed 

 by a cold evening and night and the 

 next day be wet, but one-eighth, if not 

 more, of the bees in a colony perish. 



I think this is one of the greatest 

 of all drawbacks in beedveeping, and 

 one which is scarcely ever taken into 

 account. What I have suggested may 

 account for the reasons why some lo- 

 calities are worthless for beekdceep- 

 ing. An apiarist in such a locality 

 may do his best and never succeed; 

 his colonies are all the time weak in 

 spite of breeding, while another, two 

 or three miles away, meets with great 

 success, his bees getting warning of 

 the storm half a mile the start of it, 

 and only have to sail in with the wind 

 with perfect ease. 



N. Y. J. H. Andre. 



Ttie American lee-geeper, 



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EDITORIAL, 



It seems almost a certainty that a 

 hard winter or spring, one during which 

 there are heavy losses of bees, is fol- 

 lowed by an abundant honey flowing 

 season. The previous two winters 

 have been mild in most parts of the 

 country, and consequently almost all 

 bee-keepers brought their stocks 

 through with little if any loss, and 

 when the time for the expected honey 

 flow was at hand everybody was ready 

 with large and numerous swarms to 

 gather it, but it came not. 



Clover the past two years has in 

 most localities yielded but sparingly 

 of its nectar. Last winter was not 

 severe, bu1 the past spring has been 

 one of the most disastrous ones for 

 bee-keepers that we have had in a 

 number of seasons: Many colonies 

 went into winter quarters with insuf- 

 ficient stores, and unless fed artifi- 

 cially, the long, wet spring was too 

 much for them, and many dwindled 

 away and died out completely, while 

 hardly any came out strong and in 

 good condition. 



