922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



found as practicable as the drone and queen 

 trap. Henry Alley. 



Wenham, Mass. 



[We do not yet quite see why you abandoned 

 the upright swarmer as proposed by Mr. Dib- 

 bern. With your arrangement, hives must be 

 arranged in horizontal pairs, and this would 

 necessitate leveling both hives alike. It is 

 more economical to have both empty hive and 

 " uuswarmed " colony on tlie same stand ; and 

 then, too, a queen will crawl upminl sooner 

 than she would to the right or left into an un- 

 explored hole. 



If the swarmers will discourage swarming by 

 restraining the drones, the trap or even a strip 

 of perforated zinc will do it more cheaply. For 

 the automatic swarmer to be a practical work- 

 ing success, it must hive at least 75 per cent of 

 the swarms in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 It has hardly done this yet: at least, reports 

 don't show it. We are not prejudiced against 

 the swarmer, but earnestly hope for its success. 

 and therefore welcome all repoi'ts regarding it.] 



OUR SHANE APIARY AT HOME. 



PHOTOGRAPHY, EVERGKEEXS. WINDBREAKS, 

 ETC. 



By Ernest R. RixA. 

 As our readers doubtless know by this time. 

 I have not only used the bicycle as an aid to 

 my apicultural studies and investigations, but 

 have brought into play the camera. Both of 

 these hobbies were taken up for mere pastime. 



that, while I was holding the bulb by which i 

 regulated the exposure, the camera took in 

 your humble servant — at least the upper part 

 of him. Mr. Spaftord, our apiarist, had just 

 removed the cover from a Dovetailed hive, and 

 was sending two or three whi tfs of smoke over the 

 frames to drive the bees down. The hives are 

 arranged on the S. E. Miller plan of group- 

 ing— live in a group. This arrangement not 

 only affords convenience, but the greatest econ- 

 omy of space. The apiarist has always a con- 

 venient seat, and his basket of tools for tive 

 hives is within an arm's reach. If grapevine 

 or other shade is needed, one tree or vine will 

 answer for tive hives; whereas, by the single- 

 hive plan there must be some sort of shrub for 

 each stand. Besides this, there is an alleyway 

 for the bees and one for the apiarist: and there 

 is plenty of room for a tw o-horse wagon. Un- 

 less it is at night I do not advocate or practice 

 the plan of driving horses in an apiary; but an 

 empty wagon may be pushed among the hives, 

 loaded up. and then the wagon can be drawn 

 out by means of a long rope hitched to a team, 

 at a safe distance from the Dees. 



When we brought home our Shane apiary at 

 night, as before mentioned in Gleanings, the 

 horses were driven up one of these alleyways. 

 and the wagon unloaded on either side. All 

 the hives shown in the picture were hauled in 

 two loads — 'u in one and 27 in another. The 

 former were hauled on our heavy lumber- 

 wagon, and the latter on our light platform 

 spring. 



The plan of the apiary in the photograph is 

 shown more exactly in the accompanying dia- 



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THE S. E. MILLER PLAN OF AN APIARY. 



and as a recreation froin my regular every-day 

 duties. While they fulfilled this purpose ad- 

 mirably. I have been enabled to turn them to 

 practical account. As I have told our readers 

 heretofore, photographs of apiaries should not 

 be taken when the sun shijies. but. rather, on a 

 cloudy day. One afternoon in October oui' 

 yard was illuminated just to suit my fancy, 

 and I accordingly poised the camera, and took 

 a shot, while the apiarist was at work, of one 

 corner of our home yard. The result shows 



gram. The circles at the ends of the hives 

 indicate the entrances. The groups are Kj feet 

 apart, and the hives are 18 inches from each 

 other. This leaves plenty of room for a lawn- 

 mower to I'un in between, thus keeping the 

 grass down. Eighty colonies ari-anged on this 

 plan can be accommodated on a plot of ground 

 80 X «)0 feet; or, better. 80 feet square if laid out 

 in 24-ft. squares. It may be urged, that land is 

 usually cheap where out-apiaries are located. 

 Yes; but the larger the area for a certain num- 



