958 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



planation can not now appear with the picture, 

 I will rnn over the scene a little. 



The first thing in the center foreground is a 

 light case that goes with me from hive to hive 

 when I am at work. The Clark smoker, like a 

 fat captain, is perched on the tin hurricane- 

 deck over all; and the different decks and mid- 

 ships of the case proper are supposed to con- 

 tain all the small tools and "calamities" that 

 can be wanted when at a hive. Two comb- 

 holders cling to one end of the concern. The 

 disadvantages of this case are so great that I 

 never recommend it to others: but it looks as if 

 I should never be able to tear myself loose from 

 it unless I invent something better. 



Next to the right is my solar wax-extractor. 

 Not being in use at the time.it has a muslin 

 cover drawn over it. Next comes a low object 

 occupying considerable space. This is my hon- 

 ey-ripener, for ripening extracted honey. Pos- 

 sibly this may be worth a description some time 

 — at least I think no one else has any thing like 

 it. The top Is encumbered with hive-covers 

 and rubbish. Beyond it is a pile of board 

 frames covered with poultry-netting, such as I 

 use to keep the chickens from scratching up my 

 posies and things. 



Scattered about " permiscus " through the 

 apiary are patches of my pet flowers, of which 

 the phlox is my especial "ladye love." No 

 flowers appear in the view, except some masses 

 of portulacca— shut up close as a miser's fist, 

 under the hot sun of mid day. 



The trees in which I am climbing are chest- 

 nuts. I planted the nuts with my own hand 

 when I was nearly a man grown, and now they 

 stand and preach to me how old I am. One 

 would think so many swarms would alight in 

 the tops as to be annoying. Rather curiously, 

 few swarms alight in them, either high or low: 

 while a solitary apple-tree, a little out of view 

 to the left, gets something like one-half of the 

 entire grist of swarms. The last tree-top seen 

 in the left background is a North Carolina 

 basswood, sent me as an August bloomer. It 



F roves to bloom earlier than our Ohio trees, 

 ts mate (just out of view) was sent me from 

 the same place, and is evidently of a different 

 variety. It refuses to bloom at all so far, only 

 a few buds appearing and dropping oft'. Prob- 

 ably this represents the August bloomers. The 

 foliage seen in the left foreground is a large 

 trumpet-vine of our native species. Planted 

 beside a tall post it is unable to get up 60 or 80 

 feet, as it would like to do, and so it makes a 

 low tree of itself, because it can't do any thing 

 else. As it blooms most of the summer it an- 

 swers very well as an ornamental tree when so 

 treated. The disadvantages are, that such 

 quantities of such large flowers keep the 

 ground unpleasantly littered in falling off. It 

 also sprouts up so persistently at long distances 

 away as to make a good deal of work. 



The apiary itself is laid off in 16 groups of 9 

 places each, with wide streets between groups. 

 The view shows five groups. As we look 

 cornerwise across them the streets in both direc- 

 tions are scarcely to be discerned. The plan thus 

 admits of 144 hives: but there were enough va- 

 cancies at the time the view was taken to re- 

 duce the number to something less than a hun- 

 dred. 



Rambler has done up the asparagus, so we 

 will proceed to do up the hives. The open 

 space to the left of the center front is the east 

 end of the center street, running east and west. 

 This divides the apiary into halves, the south 

 division being wholly out of view. The first 

 hive we come to is of the type most prevalent 

 in the apiary— an ordinary Langstroth hive, 

 made for ten frames, but contracted to seven 

 by a dummy and inside board. It has a heavy 



slant roof telescoped on; and for bottom it has 

 whatever comes handy. The upper story con- 

 tains wide frames with sections. About the 

 only peculiarity visible is the shading. You 

 see it is shaded with a piece of cotton cloth 

 tacked on the south and west edges of the roof. 

 'Spects there ought to be a shade-board on the 

 top too; but there isn't. If yotir eyes are sharp 

 enough you can see one more peculiarity, and 

 that is a big letter A on the front. This means 

 that the queen is a relative of all the other 

 queens who have A over their portal. The 

 next hive bears F, as the queen is of another 

 family. As a means of developing and under- 

 standing one's bees I consider this •' wrinkle '" 

 important. I would recommend it to all who 

 are willing to strive for improvement in strains 

 and families of bees. The third hive as we pass 

 along the street to the west is a big chaff' hive, 

 not varying very much from the Root pattern. 

 This, you see, has a heavy shade-board on. It 

 took me many years t,o find out that these hives 

 needed a shade-board; but they do need it bad- 

 ly, partly owing to the fact that the roofs are of 

 very thin lumber. Another thing that it took 

 me a ridiculous number of years to find out is 

 the nice, clean, convenient shelf to lay things 

 on, which I have by most of the hives. Why! 

 just lay your things down on the level, smooth- 

 clipped tops of my bunches of asparagus. Even 

 a frame of brood with bees adhering can be 

 laid down there without harm: and dripping 

 honey leaves no inconvenient daub. If we 

 should pass clear through this street, all the 

 hives in the range next to it on the north are 

 like the one we inspected last. They are placed 

 here because there is no asparagus to shade 

 this range of places. There used to be a row of 

 asparagus here also; but I laboriously destroy- 

 ed it because I wanted to widen the street, and 

 because I wanted a freer range of vision into 

 the middle of the groups, and (shall I be asham- 

 ed to confess it or not?) because I wanted a 

 nice vantage ground for some posy-beds. 



I was lucky in having the ground actually 

 pretty well hoed when Rambler arrived. It 

 isn't always so — moie's the pity. How weeds 

 do grow when one is busy, and can't get time to 

 sail into them I And how, when they are get- 

 ting the worst of it, they seem to take counsel 

 together, and send in some new kind that knows 

 how to take the disadvantage of a fellow! 

 There is a little, soft, innocent-looking weed 

 that makes me almost furious. Its tactics are 

 to come up late in the fall, after I am done hoe- 

 ing, and make its growth under the snow, or 

 during the odd warm spells in winter and 

 spring, till it has the ground covered like a 

 buffalo-robe. About that time the ground gets 

 peeled about an inch deep with a sharp shovel, 

 and whipped bottom side upward— and I guess 

 that must do for description, unless some of the 

 comrades see something they want to question 

 about. E. E. Hasty. 



Richards, O., Dec. 7. 



THE SHANE APIARY AT HOME, AGAIN. 



heddon's hive - stand; hive - gkouping ix 

 apiakies, etc. 



By Ernest R. Root. 



As I promised in our last issue, I will now tell 

 you something more about putting five hives in 

 a group; but before I proceed I hardly know 

 whether to use the personal pronoun I or the 

 editorial ire. As this article is to be exceeding- 

 ly personal and egotistical, I believe I will say 

 I, even if it should please my friend Dr. Miller. 



The picture opposite shows what I did after I 



