1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



719 



DE BECHE S HOME YARD AT TACO-TACO, CUBA. 



purposes. It contains fifty hives— two rows 

 on each side. To work the upper row you 

 have to stand on the hives of the lower row, 

 as can be easily seen from its construction 

 shown in the picture. Our honey crop here 

 takes place during the winter months, when 

 most nights are very cold and day time hot. 

 These very cold nights compel the bees to 

 cluster in the lower stories, in some cases 

 abandoning the upper stories entirely for a 

 while, and the queens refrain from laying to 

 their full capacity, not only on this account, 



but also from being overcrowded by the bees 

 which store the honey in the lower stories. 

 This is a very important matter to over- 

 come, as our honey season lasts over six 

 months, and if you do not look carefully 

 into this matter you run the risk of your 

 colonies becoming very weak in the midst of 

 the honey season. The artificial heat you 

 can create at night in the house-apiary over- 

 comes the trouble of the queens not laying 

 to their full capacity; and, although at times 

 the colonies in the house-apiary had seven 



DE BECHE'S CUBAN HOUSE-APIARY IN USE. 



