SUPPLEMENT 



TO THE 



AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



Wenham, Mass., March 1, 1888. 



For the American Apiculturist. 



THE BA Y S TA TE HI VE. 



Rev. D. D. Marsh. 



Living near Wenham, I find it 

 hard to get through the winter 

 without making a visit to the bushy- 

 whislvered and genial queen raiser 

 who fathers all the rest of them. 

 It being ver}' sunny and moderate 

 on January 31, 1 rode into his yard 

 and began to look around. Found 

 Mr. Alley in his office where the 

 editing of the Apiculturist is 

 done, besides a great variety of 

 other kinds of work. 



The readers of that fine bee 

 journal need not fear for their fu- 

 ture feeding, for I saw a pile of 

 good articles gathered ahead, which 

 1 should tlnnk would last all sum- 

 mer. And now I wish to speak a 

 secret which I hope no corre- 

 spondent will be sensitive about. 

 The first thing I read when my 

 Apiculturist comes is the "Edito- 

 rial Notes, "written byfriend Alley, 

 who is too modest to print himself 

 as editor, but only as "manager" 

 of the journal, but who sets an ex- 

 ample to all how to edit a bee- 

 paper. I was shown traps in pro- 

 cess of manufjicture, and parts of 

 the " Bay State Hive " just as they 

 are sent out to customers, all of 

 which were of good material. The 

 first thing I wanted to see was the 

 bees in their master's " new hive," 

 and find out what kind of a rec- 

 ommendation the bees would give 

 the hive after such a stinging cold 

 winter as this. So out we went 



into the yard, where over fifty new 

 "Bay State" hives, painted white, 

 met our eyes. Mr. Alley practises 

 what he says the hive will do, with 

 a good bee repository in his yard. 

 He winters all his bees out-doors 

 in his double-wall hives, and I 

 am glad to see that he has the 

 same idea that I have always had 

 about setting hives on the ground : 

 every one of his hives was set up 

 a foot or more from the ground. 

 Just as though the bees were 

 ground insect, and we should put 

 them down in the mud, and water, 

 and dampness of the soil, when 

 the Creator taught them to seek 

 their home up in the dry air of 

 tree-tops 1 We opened one of the 

 hives, lifting the top-cushion, and 

 the bees boiled up in a most healthy 

 and abundant way. This was a 

 sample hive, and the combs looked 

 fresh and dry, and the bees seemed 

 to say to me, " The Bay State is 

 the hive to winter in." Now this 

 leads me to the point of my arti- 

 cle I had in mind. 



The object of my visit was to 

 get some hives, as well as to see 

 friend Alley's bees wintering in the 

 same. I have used a common 

 double-wall L. hive for eight years 

 and think for our Massachusetts 

 climate such a hive an excellent 

 one. I have been studying the 

 new invertible hives to decide 

 which was the one for rae to adopt. 

 And now, after witnessing the 

 working of the " Bay State " for 

 two seasons, I wish to tell the 

 readers of the Apiculturist some of 

 its excellences and why I think it 



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