1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



933 



•several questions from other parties, on the 

 same subject. 



In the first place, our friend will find he 

 has something to do besides farming if he 

 works two out-apiaries of 50 colonies besides 

 his home yard, and does all the work himself 

 except hiving swarms. I should say that 50 

 cts. a swarm would pay for the hiving if that 

 were all. But how about watching for swarms ? 

 Then is the man who furnishes the location to 

 have nothing for his bother in having the api- 

 ary of from 50 to perhaps 100 colonies on his 

 place? 



WHERE TO LOCATE THE OUT- YARDS. 



First, let us locate the apiary. Now look 

 sharp, for very much depends on the location; 

 in fact, more than half of the success of the 

 apiary rests on this one point. See that the 

 place has good pasture for the bees. We in 

 this north country would want plenty of white 

 clover and basswood timber, and river-bottom 

 land with fall flowers. Any way, be sure of 

 good bee-pasturage. Then I want a good nat- 

 ural windbreak— hills or timber, or something 

 to break the north and west winds. 



Now, if we have found all this, is the right 

 ■kind of man or family living on it? If the fam- 

 ily are all right, what are the neighbors? Are 

 they of a class that will steal, or make you 

 itrouble? 



If the people are all right we will look the 

 place over. Is the place where we want to put 

 the bees too near the house or barn or stack- 

 yards, where they have to come with teams to 

 stack and thrash the grain ? It won't do at all 

 to have horses very near the apiary when un- 

 loading grain or hay, or thrashing, or any thing 

 •of that kind. A bee in the ear of a horse makes 

 it wild. Most horses are afraid of bees. Our 

 apiaries are from 15 to 30 rods away from house 

 ■or barn or stack-yards, and all the out-yards 

 are from 30 to 100 rods from a public road. 

 Most of them are in pasture land, free to all 

 kinds of stock. Stock don't do any damage to 

 our large quadruple hives, but keep down the 

 grass. It saves us the trouble of mowing. Lo- 

 cate your apiaries three or four miles apart; 

 farther would be better. Of course, other folks' 

 bees must be taken into consideration. Don't 

 ■overstock the pasture. Uetter go two or three 

 miles further than accept a poor location, for 

 we have to go with team; and when on the 

 road, two or three miles further is soon traveled. 

 We go eight miles to some of ours. 



One more thing: If you are likely to get a 

 load of bees or honey, it is handy to load up 

 right in the apiary. After we have worked the 

 apiary all over, the bees will be cross. We can 

 not take the team to the wagon where it is in 

 the apiary, to hitch on. We must have a down 

 grade, away from the apiary. It should be 15 

 to 20 rods or more, then the wagon can be mov- 

 ed by hand to a place where it will be safe to 

 ■come with a team. 



Now, if we have found the location that will 

 answer our purpose, we shall see what terms 

 we can make with the owner. All our out- 

 apiaries are planted on the same conditions. 

 We give 25 cts. a year for each colony that we 

 have on the ground, spring count, counting 

 them about the last of May, or at a time when 

 we are sure there won't be a less number. The 

 land-owner has nothing to do with the bees, 

 except, if any thing happens that requires our 

 attention, he is to let us know, and we look 

 after them. There is no watching for swarms, 

 and no swarms to hive. 



We work all our out-yards for extracted hon- 

 ey. We think it is less work for the money we 

 get out of the business. 



HIVES. 



If I were starting new in the bee-business I 

 would use the L. frame, standard size. I would 

 use a quadruple hive, chaflf-lined, three stories 

 in summer and two in winter, and winter on the 

 summer stands. 



WHAT KIND OR RACE OF BEES ? 



My candid opinion is, there is not much dif- 

 ference. With good location and -good man- 

 agement, any of them will give lots of honey. 

 But my choice are the gray Carniolans. They 

 will gather as much honey as any; are very 

 prolific, and do less stinging. 



Now, having located the apiary, made terras 

 with the land-owner, and having bees on the 

 ground, we will proceed to run the apiary for 

 extracted honey. We will begin with the 

 fruit-blossoms. If there is any considerable 

 amount of, bloom we can open hives without 

 danger of robbers. We will suppose the bees 

 are in L. hives, two stories high. Take out all 

 the combs and clean out the hive; clip the 

 queen's wing one side. You will find that all 

 or nearly all the brood is now in the second 

 story. Put all the brood down in the lower 

 story. If there are not enough combs with 

 brood in them to fill the lower story, perhaps 

 some other colony may have more than enough 

 to fill the lower story. In that case, give the 

 surplus to the weaker ones. Put the honey- 

 combs in the second story. If there are empty 

 combs, and the lower stories are full of brood, 

 put the empty combs above. Caution.— It the 

 bees average weak, and there are not combs 

 with brood in them enough to fill the lower 

 story, then I would wait until they have 

 enough, as the upper story is warmer, and a 

 weak colony will build up faster with the brood 

 above. But, clip your queens at this time. We 

 can now leave the yard for ten days; then, if 

 there were no queen-cells left when here before, 

 it is not possible for a swarm to have gone off; 

 and here in this country it is not likely that a 

 swarm has been out. Dandelions will be in 

 bloom here then. 



We will now look the yard over again. If 

 there are any weak colonies, they should be 



