THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



45 



Bee-Keeping. 



From the American Encyclopsedm, ■with additions and 

 emcudatious. 



The selection of a suitable place for an apiary- 

 is of great importance. Tlie situation should 

 bo well sheltered from strong winds, either nat- 

 urally, or by building walls or fences. If not 

 sulliciently protected, the bees are prevented 

 from leaving the hive, and when returning 

 with heavy loads of honey and pollen, are 

 blown to the ground, or dashed against trees 

 and rocks, and thus many are lost. It is not 

 well to have large surfaces of water very near, 

 lest the bees, overcome by cold or fatigue, 

 should be forced to alight on them, or be car- 

 ried down by the winds and perish. The hives 

 should especially be protected from north-west 

 winds and from chilling south winds. It is 

 necessary, when the winters are severe, par- 

 ticularly to regard protection from tho cold, 

 and from dampness. The hives may face the 

 south or east, or south east; and thus the 

 greatest benefit will be derived from the con- 

 tinuance of the heat and light of the sun during 

 that portion of^the day when they are most 

 useful. Though where increase of stock by 

 natural swarming is not a prime object a north- 

 ern exposure will not prove disadvantageous, 

 since bees love to labor in the sun and to dwell 

 in the shade, and are more disposed to store up 

 honey when placed in such a situation. The 

 hives should be set in a right line. It is better 

 to place them on shelves, one above another, 

 than in rows upon the ground. The distance 

 between the hives should not be less than three 

 feet and their height from the ground should 

 be about two feet. Some experienced bee- 

 keepers, however, raise the platform of the 

 hive not more than two inches from the earth, 

 considering this preff^rable, because fewer of 

 the fatigued or chilled bees that miss the hive 

 in returning and alight under it, are lost, the 

 flight of issuing swarms is lower, and there is 

 less exposure to strong winds. It will be found 

 of not a little consec[uence, to have the apiary 

 .where it can be conveniently watched in swarm- 

 ing time, but it should by all moans be remov- 

 ed from annoyance and disturbance by men 

 or teams i>assiug and repassing, or animals 

 laboring or grazing too near the hives. 

 Grounds on which there are no large trees, but 

 some of small size and shrubbery, on which the 

 swarms may alight arc preferable. The grass 

 should be mowed frequently around the hives, 

 and the ground kept clean, not only for the de- 

 light of the bees, but to prevent too much damp- 

 ness, and to destroy the lurking places of var- 

 ious insects and vermin. 



The proper construction of the hive is one of 

 the things most essential to success in bee-keep- 

 ing. Many different kinds have been invented, 

 each more or less complex, designed to give 

 certain advantages, and to obviate certain evils 

 in managing bees and producing honey. Of 

 these it will be sufficient to mention several of 

 the most important varieties. The chamber 

 hive is made with two apartments — the lower 

 for the residence of the bees, the upper to hold 



the boxes in which the bees put their honey 

 after liaving filled the lower part. The advan- 

 tages of this are claimed to be a permanent cover 

 for the boxes of glass or wood, or vessels of any 

 kind put on tiic hive ; a better protection 

 from the weather, with less inconvenience in 

 turning up the hive, and in fitting a shelter 

 over it, than is found willi a movable cover. 

 These hives are sometmes made wedge-shaped, 

 being several inches narrower from front to 

 rear at the bottom than at the top, to prevent 

 the combs from slipping down. They are also 

 sometimes furnished with inclined bottom- 

 boards, to' roll out the worms that fa'l upon 

 them, or are driven down by the bees. In prac- 

 tice, however, this latter arrangement has 

 proved to be of little account, and these modi- 

 fications have hence not been found to be of 

 much importance. To protect the bees from ver- 

 min, several kinds of su.'^pended hivrs have 

 been contrived with iuclint d movable bottom 

 boards. The dividing hives are made with 

 several compartments, the object being to mul- 

 tiph', at the will of the bee-keeper, the number 

 of colonies without the trouble and risk of 

 swarming and hiving. When bees from any 

 cause lose their queen, and the combs contain 

 worker eggs or worker larva) not more than 

 five or six days old, another queen Avill usually 

 be developed ; and if this occur when drones? 

 exist in the apiary or in its vicinil}', the queen 

 thus reared will ordinarily be fertilized, and 

 become qualified to lay both worker and drone 

 eggs. But if no drones exist in the neighbor- 

 hood at the time, with which the j^oung queen 

 can have intercourse, she will be' able to lay 

 drone eggs only, and the colony must inevita- 

 bly perish, unless the queen be removed 

 and one perfectly fertile substituted. By 

 means of these divisible hives, the partitions 

 of which are supposed to divide the brood- 

 combs, a part of the bees and of the combs are 

 removed and placed by themselves to go on 

 making honey, and multiplying in every respect 

 like a natural swarm. A very large number of 

 stocks or swarms may thus be made, during the 

 proper season, by a bee-keeper hainnff siiffcient 

 knoicledge and e.rperience. The objection urged 

 against this kintl of hivcs are : the expense of 

 construction, the frequency with which the 

 bees are found to put all the icorkir brood- 

 combs in one compartment, the difficulty oi' re- 

 moving a part just at the times su ted lor the 

 deveiopi ment of a new queen, and the increased 

 exposure to cold and starvation in winter by 

 sei)araling the bees in the diflercnt compart- 

 ments. 



Several inventions have been made to enable 

 the bee-keeper to change the combs and gel the 

 honey without driving out or destroying the 

 bees. Changeable hives are made in sections, 

 generalh' three drawers placed one alove 

 another, holes being made to allow the bees to 

 pass. "When the bo.xes are all filled, and it is 

 desired to change the combs, the upper box is 

 removed, and its place is supplied by a new 

 one put in at the bottom. This being done 

 yearly, the entire contents of the hive would be 

 changed every three years, and be kept new. 

 It is held, by the advocates of this description 



