December, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



755 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



your nucleus is ready to place where you 

 wish it. This can also be done with full 

 colonies, the top and bottom screens being 

 put on all ready for moving, the bottom- 

 board, of course, being turned so the bees 

 cannot run under the hive; the ventilator 

 being open now serves as the entrance. 

 When evening comes all the bees will find 

 their way into the hive, and it is very quick 

 work to go around and close the slides, when 

 the hives are bee-tight instantly, all the 

 work of preparation for moving having been 

 done by daylight. When the side is closed, 

 it staj's put, not being pulled off or split off, 

 as often happens with a piece of section. 



The accompanying drawing shows a Han- 

 son ventilator about three and one-half 

 inches long by two and one-eighth wide, with 

 the edges turned over 3/16 inch to form the 

 groove for the slide. It is such a simple, in- 

 expensive little device and so useful in many 

 ways, which will be discovered only when 

 the beekeeper begins using it, that I believe 

 its use should be promoted. 



Washington, D. C. E. L. Sechrist. 



SOME ENGLISH APIARIES 



Typical Small Apiaries of England and Some Eng- 

 lish Beemasters 



Beekeeping in England is almost over- 

 whelmingly conducted in small apiaries. 

 More than a ton of honey is rarely taken 

 in one yard, and that is probably an assem- 



blage massed for the heather from several 

 smaller summer establishments. Mr. Bart- 

 lett is perhaps the most extensive English 

 beekeeper. He usually harvests from some 

 five hundred hives scattered over a part of 

 Oxfordshire, and he has also a monopoly of 

 beekeeping in Scilly Isles, thanks to an 

 agreement with the sole landowner. He be- 

 lieves that the British bee could make a new 

 start from this point, whence an immune 

 strain could take the place of the disease- 

 rotten medley of ancient and imported stock 

 that some people think populates the m.ain- 

 land. This idea not unnaturally excites the 

 jealousy of other breeders and bee-mer- 

 chants. 



I have not been able to visit any of Mr. 

 Bartlett 's apiaries. There would, however, 

 be nothing special in a photograph of one 

 of them, for this English bee-king, like 

 others, finds it essential to avoid the dis- 

 aster of disease by splitting his bees among 

 moderate-sized yards. In spite of all pre- 

 cautions, he was practically wiped out a 

 few years ago. 



Mr. Ford, a retired schoolmaster, has a 

 first-class little garden apiary near the gar- 

 den town of Cheltenham. His ambition is 

 to stay at 50 uniform strong stocks. Two 

 years ago he reached 49, then had a serious 

 setback from which as yet he has only half 

 recovered. In their long row under the old 

 apple trees, facing a hedge perhaps a trifle 

 too high, his bees were gathering clover 

 honey hand over fist when I visited them. 

 The wholesalers take it greedily at a shilling 



A crowded apiary near Gloucester, England. 



