42 AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



comparatively few, place them in clumps of two or more. 

 I can see no advantage, but several disadvantages in 

 this arrangement. Robbing is more likely to occur when 

 the hives are so close together; there is not the same 

 convenience for working them ; young queens are more 

 likely to miss their hives after their wedding flight; and 

 in most cases the bees of all the hives in the clump must 

 be quieted while working at either one. When the 

 hives are standing out singly there is nothing to impede 

 rapid manipulation, which is always desirable when 

 working large apiaries. 



The hives should not be less than a clear six feet 

 apart, and the rows eight feet, or, if space will allow, 

 ten feet apart from centre to centre ; this would give 

 eight feet clear between the line of bottom boards. The 

 position of the hives in each row should alternate with 

 that of those in the rows in front and behind, as shown 

 in the illustration. This aifords a clear line of flight 

 to each hive, and the person working them is outside 

 that line. The front of the hives should face the North, 

 or from that to North-East, but never to the West of 

 North if it can be avoided. 



BUILDINGS. EXTRACTING HOUSE. 



The extracting house or room may be entirely separate 

 from all other buildings, but as a matter of economy, 

 and convenience, it is, as a rule, best to have all the 

 necessary tenements, such as extracting and honey store 

 rooms, w^orkshop and hive store room (the two latter 

 in one compartment), and a comb storage room under 

 one roof, and connecting with each other. I cannot 

 too urgently impress upon those bee-keepers who are, 

 or intend to be, in a sufficiently large way to need the 

 foregoing conveniences, to put up a roomy and sub- 

 stantial building in the first place, and not try to do 

 with anything of a makeshift nature. The building 

 need not be an elaborate one ; plain upright boarding 

 and battens needing no lining, partitioned off, and made 

 bee proof. Those at the Government Apiaries are built 

 in this plain manner, on my design, in order to show 

 how an efficient and cheap building may be erected by 

 anyone capable of using a hammer and saw. 



