GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Pig. 1. — A gtiifial \icw of the Koot apiary on the Ai)ala< hicnla Hiver, t'loiida. The 300 colonies are 

 placed upon raised platforms or scaffolding, some five or six feet high, or above high-water mark. While 

 these platforms are somewhat expensive, they are vei-j' convenient in affording easy access to all the colonies. 

 There is no uneven ground, no shrubbery or weeds to interfere with the work or the flight of the bees, and 

 a wheel-barrow has good wheeling to every hive. 



One would naturally inquire, " Why not 

 seek out land that will always be above 

 high water, and thus save the expense of 

 these high runways'? There are only a 

 very few locations of that kind, and they 

 are all taken up. Mr. R. L. Tucker sought 

 out this point because of the abundance of 

 black and white tupelo and willow for fur- 

 nishing early pollen; and he located well, 

 as the subsequent history of the place has 

 shown. Mr. Tucker finally sold out to Mr. 

 A. B. Marchant and went north ; but he has 

 since conae back, and located another scaf- 

 fold apiary about four miles down the river. 

 Mr. Marchant, the first year after he bought 

 this scaffold yard, secured enough honey to 

 pay the cost of the investment — bees, plat- 

 forms, three buildings, and a launch, as seen 

 in Fig. 3; but as he had more locations than 

 he had bees to stock them he sold this one 

 to us, and it is now in charge of his son 

 Ernest Marchant. 



As has been already explained editorially, 

 the cold and cool weather of February and 

 March gave us a little setback; but our Mr. 

 Marchant believes that he will make his 

 increase just the same. I told him I did 

 not believe he could do it ; but when I saw 

 the honey coming in from black tupelo on 

 the 17th of March I changed my mind. The 

 bees dropped down at the entrances just as 

 they would when working on basswood; and 

 when a comb was pulled out of a hive the 



neciar would fall out like rain. But black 

 tupelo is not considered a heavy source for 

 honey. It comes in just right to build up 

 the colonies for the main flow later from 

 white tupelo, Avhich is a heavy yielder of 

 nectar. 



It will be seen from Figs. 2, 3, 4 that the 

 hives are free from weeds, shi'ubbery, and 

 uneven ground. This is a big advantage. 

 While the ground •itself just beneath the 

 platforms is uneven, high and low in spots, 

 the platforms are level from end to end. 

 Our men, therefore, have nice clean board 

 walks to every liive in the yard. It will be 

 noticed that these long elevated sidewalks, 

 so to speak, radiate in different directions 

 from the workshops, one of which is shown 

 in Fig. 4. This renders it possible to have 

 tools and api^liances, and every thing need- 

 ed, within convenient reach. 



On the 17th day of March 100 supers, 

 consisting of full-depth bodies, were placed 

 on the hives; and Mr. Marchant was ex- 

 pecting to put on as many more the next 

 good fly day. These supers contained frames 

 of foundation. When a colony becomes 

 strong enough, two or three frames of 

 foundation from the upper story are put in 

 the lower one, and an equal number of 

 combs and bees are placed in the upper 

 story, with frames of foundation between. 

 This is spreading brood with a vengeance, 

 and ordinarily in the North such practice 



