1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



313 



cut a groove diagonally across the 

 block nearly ftotn one corner to the 

 opposite one, taking care not to cut 

 the groove quite to the coiiier. I'he 

 center oi' this block may he cut out 

 to suit your fancy, and may he turned 

 if so desired, and you have an excel 

 lent and cheaply devised watering ap- 

 paratus. 



Now fill the jar with water, placing 

 the block over the mouth of the jar, 

 invert the whole, and set in conveni- 

 ent places or desire<l poiuts in the api- 

 ary. The points I claim for this de- 

 vice are its simplicity and cheapness, 

 and after the breeding season is past, 

 and there is little need of watering, 

 the jar is of as much utility in the 

 kitchen as it was last year while the 

 good house-wife was putting up the 

 winter's supply of fruit. 



Again, when the weather is so mild 

 that the bees can fly in quest of water, 

 the sun's rays shining upon the water 

 through the inverted jar, warms its 

 contents quickly, and the bee gets a 

 supply without being chilled or a fail- 

 ure to return with the much-needed 

 water or even a danger of wet feet. 

 To avoid the difficulty of readily at- 

 tracting the bee to its new watering 

 place, I would recommend slightly 

 sweetening the water in these jars for 

 a day or two, and everything will 

 move on smoothly afterwards. 



So far as our observation has gone, 

 during the height of brood-rearing, 

 and taking no note of evaporations, 

 five well-stocked colonies will use the 

 majority of one of these jars of water 

 daily. 



Thus the careful, far-seeing apiarist 

 will be able at once to see the impor- 

 tance of watering in the apiary, and 

 also of lessening the flight to and fro, 

 and assuring its purity and tempera- 

 ture best suited to the delicate organ- 

 ism of the honey-bee. 



From (ilcniiin{;s). 



LOCATING AN ODT-TARD. 



How to Calculate on Bee-Eanges ; How 

 to Prevent Thieves from Stealing. 



]5Y HARFY HOWE. 



Late in the season last year I bought 

 two lots of bees to be taken in the 

 spring, so over winter I had to consid- 

 er Avhere to locate thera. The first 

 step was to take out my bee map and 

 look for unoccupied territory. This 

 map shows the result of years of study 

 of the surrounding country as regards 

 bees and bee pasture. On it is marked 

 every lot of ten or more colonies as 

 far as 1 know for miles around. It is 

 a road map showing all the roads as 

 well as the hills and valleys. One of 

 the first things noticeable is that there 

 is not a bit of unoccupied space for 

 ten miles or so in any direction, while 

 it is twenty in some. My rule is to 

 draw circles of one and one-half miles 

 radius from the lots of fifty or more, 

 and one mile from those of less than 

 fifty. Any space not covered by these 

 circles is unoccupied. For a new lo- 

 cation there must be room to draw 

 another circle without cutting any of 

 the adjoining circles. 



There is another point to be consid- 

 ered just here, however, and that is, 

 that the range covered by a yard is 

 not a true circle, but a more or less 

 irregular figure, depending on the lay 

 of the land. It will extend more than 

 one and one-half miles up and down a 

 valley, but less than that over a range 

 of hills. It is seldom that the bees 

 will work over into another valley. 



Another thing to consider is, who 

 owns the other bees ? One might hesi- 

 tate to locate as close to a yard be- 

 longing to another as he would his 

 own. 



