1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURF. 



10C9 



AYEARS WORK m AH OUT APIARY 





mi 



l^TJ5JMZ5QCrLIIXi:EaM^. 



.CHAPTER XL 



It is now Oftol:)er 10th, and one of those 

 Ijeautiful clear days with enough of smoke 

 and "haze"' in the atmosphere to give a 

 l)almyair. which makes one of our fall days in 

 New York so delightful. The leaves, which 

 are soon to fall from the trees, all gorgeous- 

 ly arrayed in their many-dyed hues, are 

 made more enchanting to the eyes by being 

 "kissed" by the morning sunshine — surely 

 a splendid day for an auto ride; and, to com- 

 bine pleasure with profit, Mrs. D. and my- 

 self are soon traveling at an easy "pace" 

 towai'd the out-apiary, breathing the health- 

 ful ozone of an autumn day, and feasting 

 our eyes on the ever varying changes of the 

 landscape before us. We go on a roundabout 

 road, instead of the direct one usually trav- 

 eled, so as to see new scenes; but even this, 

 and with the gait of the auto so slow that I, 

 the driver, need not be very closely confined 

 to the chauffeur part of the matter, causes 

 us to arrive at our destination all too soon. 

 Mrs. D. goes in to have an agreeable hour 

 with the farmer's wife, while I hie me away 



MOUSE-PROOF EXTRANCE; f MESH; BOTTOM- 

 BOARD WINTER SIDE UP; HIVE-FAST- 

 ENER WITH STAPLES. 



to the 1)ee-yard. the most delightful spot in 

 all the world to me except my home and the 

 church and Sunday-school of the living 

 Christ. 



With a swinging motion of the hands and 

 forearms, together with a soi-t of backward 

 bend, while the elbows ai*e on the knees, 

 hive No. 1, row 1, is "swung" from its stand 

 to the ground, immediately by the stand's 



side. A reserve bottom-boaixl is now placed 

 on the stand, winter or deep side up. when 

 a right-sized piece of galvanized wii-e cloth 

 having a §-iuch mesh (the same being usetl 

 as a mouse-guard) is slipped into the saw- 

 kerf made for it on the inside edge of the 

 two-inch strips, which holds the hive that far 

 from the Ijoard below. A few puffs of smoke 

 are now blown in at the enti-ance of the 

 hive, when the point of the ever useful piece 

 of wagon-spring is thrust into the same. and. 

 with a lifting motion, the bottom-])oard is 



THE LIFTING-SWINGING MOTION. 



made to part from its place through the 

 breaking of the propolis which has been used 

 during the summer to fasten it there. 



Witn the same swinging motion, as before, 

 the hive is almost instantly on the newly 

 prepared bottom-board, and brought forward 

 till it touches the mouse-guard of g -inch-mesh 

 wire cloth. When the bees are wintered at 

 the farmer's cellai", who owns the land the 

 out-apiary is located on (and I should al- 

 ways winter them there if possible), this 

 mouse-guard is an absolute necessity, as a 

 former experience of rat-and-mouse-de- 

 stroyed combs and bees told me. Hive No. 

 1 now has an entrance two inches deep the 

 whole width of the hive, all open except the 

 wii'e cloth. This must be tightly closed in 

 some way for a month or so, or until the 

 bees are set in the cellar, to prevent robber 

 bees from gaining access to the honey in the 

 hive. This is best done with a piece of gal- 

 vanized iron, the same size as the mouse- 

 guard, having a piece three inches long by 

 I inch deep cut from the bottom side of it, 

 when it is slipped down in the saw-kerf on 

 the outside of the guard. 



Having No. 1 thus ready for cellar winter- 

 ing, the bees on the bottom-board, if any still 

 adhere, are jari'ed off in front of the hive, 

 and I go to No. 3, treating it in the same 

 way I did No. 1, only using the bottom-board 

 from No. 1 instead of a "reserve" by turn- 

 ing it deep side up. In this way I keep on 

 till all are thus treated. 



By this swinging process, as here given, 

 which I always use in changing the bottom- 

 board both in fall and spring, there is not 

 half the fatigue and none of the backache 

 that are experienced by the usual way of 

 lifting hives which are heavy with honey; 



