January, 1921 



GLfiAlS'lNGS iN BEE CtlLTURfi 



21 



:^ 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



AN ARTISTIC NATURAL SHADE 



Inexpensive Method of Shading Bees When Shade 

 is Most Needed 



I own a tract of land containing about 

 two acres. On these two acres I keep my wife 

 and seven children, rather a small family 

 for such a large farm. On this same plot I 

 also liave from 25 to 50 chickens and raise 

 plenty of vegetables for the family, with 

 quite a few to sell. Most of the ground out- 

 side of the chicken park and where the 

 house stands is planted to some kind of 

 vegetables. On this two-acre tract and lo- 

 cated nearly in the center of the garden are 

 40 families of bees. 



When I thought of placing my bees out in 

 the garden among the vegetables the first 

 thing was to provide some kind of shade. I 

 finally thought it would do a double duty 

 to plant castor beans, as they would pro- 

 vide shade for the bees and keep the moles 

 from rooting the ground all up. At least 

 Grandma used to say if jon planted castoi- 

 beans in the garden moles wouldn 't bother. 

 Well, I found this wasn't true. There were 

 two or three moles that just seemed to de- 

 light in staying right in among those hives 

 all summer. Maybe the reason was that they 

 liked the bees better than the beans, but 

 any way I am not going to be so sure about 

 what Grandma says hereafter. 



As for tlie shade I don't think you could 

 find anything nicer and more efficient. The 

 picture where you can hardly see the hives 

 because of the beans was taken July 2, and 

 the others were taken September 1. As the 

 beans grow I trim out the leaves under- 



neath, and by the hottest part of the sea- 

 son the plants are tall enough to let plenty 

 of air thru and they have a nice umbrella- 

 like foliage, so they make an ideal shade. 

 There is another feature that is worth some- 

 thing to me, and that is that, if you use a 

 little judgment in planting, you will add 

 greatly to the beauty of your yard and in 

 my case to the garden. The bees seem to be 

 well pleased with their surroundings, and it 

 seemed as tho some of them tried to keep 

 the top of their house above the top of the 

 beans; but, after some had erected seven 

 stories above the ground floor, material 

 seemed to get scarce, and, as the beans were 

 gaining on them all the time, they gave up 

 in despair. I had a hive with seven comb- 

 honey supers on just coming up to the first 

 limbs of the shade, so trimmed as to make 

 the lieight right. Some of these beans got 

 10 feet high and 6^,^ inches thru at the 

 ground. It made a regular grove for the 

 bees. I had beemen from all over our part 

 of the country come to see them. I live 

 right on one of the main highways thru 

 Nebraska, and this yard certainly attracted 

 the attention of lots of passers-by. 



To sum it all up, the castor bean comes up 

 in the spring and does not bother when the 

 bees need all the sunshine and warmth they 

 .can get. As the weather grows warmer, the 

 beans come on and and make the necessary 

 shade. Then in the fall when the bees need 

 the sun again the beans are killed by frost 

 and cut and taken out of the way. And for 

 the amount of trouble taking care of them, 

 I don 't believe there is any kind of an ar- 

 rangement that will equal them. 



Auburn, Nebr. J. W. Admire. 



Here are the castor bean plants before being trimmed, early in July. The shade is abundant. 



