1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



201 



fords the same advantages for examination of the 

 brood-chamber, and that, too, without removing 

 the surplus. This will explain how I am able to 

 cut out new combs for section starters as they are 

 being- built, with but little trouble. Simply cut 

 them out from the open side of the hive, without 

 removing the frames at all._ H. R. Boardman. 

 East Townsend, O., Jan. 30, 1888. 



Friend B., we are very much obliged in- 

 deed for the pains yon have taken to en- 

 lighten us, not only on tliis matter of bee- 

 escapes, but in regard to the way in which 

 you use that peculiar hive of yours, made in 

 the form of a cube. You have given me 

 the first good and excellent reason for hav- 

 ing a side-opening hive. You may remem- 

 ber that I used the side-opening American 

 hives for a good many years ; and for cut- 

 ting out the pieces of new comb as fast as 

 the bees could build them, there could be 

 nothing nicer than your arrangement. 1 do 

 remember your report, and 1 do remember, 

 too, that several other matters crowded it 

 so closely that I was afraid it would be over- 

 looked. Dr. Miller took it up, you may re- 

 member ; and 1 feel sure there are few 

 things in the production of comb honey that 

 will help us more than some plan by which 

 all the bees, old and young, may get them- 

 selves out of the surplus-boxes, and get safe- 

 ly back into the parent hive. No doubt a 

 similar plan could be arranged for the Sim- 

 plicity hive, l)ut we should have to bore a 

 hole in the front end, and I am opposed to 

 boring holes in hives. 



SPACE BETWEEN HIVES. 



Dll. MILLEFl GIVES US SOME SUGGESTIONS. 



R. J. C. STEWART, of Hopkins, Mo., writes, 

 "My hives are on stakes 14 in. from the 

 ground, and V feet apart. I want to set 

 them down on bricks. How high from the 

 ground is the entrance of your hives? I 

 wish to know your best plan of spacing hives. In 

 Gleanings, 1886, you gave cuts thus: till 

 and said to put thus: | | | |. Now, my hives 

 are 20 inches square, with flat tin roof, and your 

 plan suggested using one for a table while working 

 the other; but I want to go all around a hive. I 

 have an idea, and this is it: Set the hives thus: 

 I i I i II II 



II II II 



with a space of 30 inches between the two hives in a 

 pair, and 7 feet between the pairs. Then I can sit 

 between two hives, work at one and reach the oth- 

 er to lay any thing out of my hand." 



The entrances to my hives are 3 to 5 Inches from 

 the ground, the inequality of the ground making a 

 difference. Making every alternate space 30 inches 

 is better than having the hives separated a uni- 

 form distance of 7 feet in the row; but I can see no 

 advantage in occupying so much ground. The 

 more compact the hives are placed, the more con- 

 venient for the operator. Neither would I alter- 

 nate by making the wide spaces of one row come 

 opposite the narrow spaces of another row. I 

 doubt it there is in the phin any advantage for the 

 bees, while for the operator it has the disadvantage 

 of preventing what would otherwise be a free pass 

 age for a wheelbarrow at right angles to the main 

 streets. 



It is a convenience to have the cover of one hive 

 to use as a table while working at the next hive; 

 but you win find it more convenient to have this 

 table in front rather than behind you; and if the 

 pairs of hives stand as close as they can without 

 touching, you can easily reach over the hive at 

 which you are working, to place a smoker on its 

 mate. Of course, this prevents working on all 

 sides of the hive; but, as it looks to me, the advan- 

 tage of this is hardly worth considering. 



This whole matter of arranging hives is one that 

 depends on circumstances, the lay of the ground, 

 etc. Last year I kept my bees in four apiaries, and 

 no two are exactly alike. The main thing I keep in 

 view is to have the hives in pairs, and in straight 

 rows. The hexagonal form, I think, is of no great 

 advantage to the bees, if not a disadvantage, and it 

 is easier to glance along a straight row to watch for 

 swarming. In the home apiary and the Wilson 

 apiary the hives face due east, and the principal 

 streets run north and south, there being about 6 

 feet between the rows. The two hives of each pair 

 in all the apiaries stand just as close as they can 

 without interfering. In the Hastings apiary the 

 hives face east, but the principal streets run east 

 and west, because more convenient. The Belden 

 apiary is in a dense evei-green grove (more dense, 

 I suppose, than is good), and the hives face alter- 

 nately east and west, two rows standing back to 

 back as close as they can conveniently, in this 

 manner: 



This makes a very pleasant apiary to work in. 



STANUS. 



For the past two years I have used stands that 

 are cheaper than my old ones, and I like them bet- 

 ter. Take two pieces of board 6 inches wide (I use 

 old fence-boards), having a length a little more 

 than twice the width of a hive, or long enough so 

 that two hives side by side will easily stand upon 

 them. Now place them on the ground so that one 

 maj' support the back ends of the hives, and one the 

 front ends, and level them with a spirit-level, mak- 

 ing the front one a little lower than the back one. 

 Then take old pieces of boards of any width, about 

 as long as the hives, and lay crosswise on the two 

 boards, and your stand is ready to hold the hives. 

 Besides being very inexpensive, these stands have 

 the advantage of being made level in very much 

 less time, and with much less trouble than stands 

 made to hold a single hive. They can be left in 

 place from year to year, and, each piece being sep- 

 arate, it can be replaced with new as soon as it 

 gives out. Any old boards, pieces of boxes, etc., 

 will do for the short pieces. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



Friend M., I am well aware that, the more 

 compact the hives are placed, the more con- 

 venient for the operator; but in our apiary, 

 even with the hives seven feet apart, and 

 even though the chaff hives alternate with 

 Simplicity hives, and have their entrances 

 in opposite directions, there is a good deal 

 of trouble with bees getting in the wrong 



