AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



207 



of the wagon until I examined them, 

 and I do not believe it was more than 

 20 minutes. Drones were flying thick 

 from the drone hives, and I know these 

 queens did not go any 4 miles — not any 

 % mile — from the hive to mate, but they 

 were mated right in that yard, not over 

 2 acres in it. You see, these queens 

 being 5 days old, and having been fed 

 regularly, were crazy to fly, and conse- 

 quently flew the first chance they had. 



Now, could we not confine queen as 

 above, and select the time to turn them 

 loose, while the drones were flying, and 

 have them mated to just the drones we 

 wish ? I believe it is worth trying, as 

 these are plain facts, and no theory 

 about it. 



Floyd, Texas, July 12, 1892. 



Bee-Questions ly a Beginner. 



J. F. EGGEKS. 



I have read up on bee-culture for sev- 

 eral years, both books and periodicals, 

 but I have been in actual " beesness " 

 only since early spring. I have 6 colo- 

 nies at home, and bought out an apiary 

 of 13 colonies a few days ago — all Ital- 

 ians, and hard at work. 



I find the bee-literature a great help 

 to me — in fact, I would not undertake to 

 start with so many colonies, if I had not 

 posted myself as to their management. 

 Here everybody winters bees on the 

 summer stands, or in sheds, where they 

 stand the year around, and the bees 

 seem to come out all right in the spring, 

 generally. I have thought of putting up 

 a shed nearly high enough to admit the 

 hive with supers, and have the roof so 

 that it can easily be removed to admit 

 the sunshine on cool days, and allow one 

 to handle the bees over the rear wall. 

 In winter, leaves could be packed over 

 and between the hives. 



It would interest me, and probably 

 others of your readers, to have the, fol- 

 lowing questions answered in the Bee 

 Journal : 



1. Is ft advisable to put up a shed to 

 shelter bees from wind an sun ? If so, 

 what is the best way to build such a 

 shed ? 



2. How near may hives be placed with- 

 out injury to the occupants ? 



3. Is it detrimental to the bees to 

 open the hive and handle the frames 

 frequently, say once a week ? 



4. Why do bees often clinch and 

 tumble to the ground, or fly away, hold- 



ing to each other ? Is it the fighting of 

 two bees, out of different hives ? 

 Grand Island, Nebr., July 16, 1892. 



[By request, Dr. C. C. Miller has an- 

 swered the questions asked by Mr. 

 Eggers, as follows :] 



BUILDING SHEDS FOK BEES. 



1. Very few bee-keepers now-a-days 

 put up sheds for their bees. I like, as 

 do many others, to have my hives in the 

 shade of trees, more for the purpose of 

 having it pleasant for the operator than 

 for any benefit to the bees. In the ab- 

 sence of any shade trees, I am not sure 

 that it would not be a good plan to have 

 some kind of a shed to shade the bees, 

 but it need be only the simplest kind of 

 covering or roof, high enough not to be 

 in the "way of the operator, no side-walls 

 whatever. 



THE SPACE BETWEEN THE HIVES. 



2. The occupants of the hives are not 

 likely to receive any injury directly 

 from each other if the hives are placed 

 close together in a straight row, as they 

 were commonly placed years ago. There 

 may be some mixing of the bees by their 

 entering wrong hives, but that does not 

 seem to make any trouble. There may, 

 however, be serious trouble whenever 

 young queens fly on their bridal trips, 

 for in that case if a queen enters a 

 wrong hive it leaves queenless the hive 

 she left. 



To avoid any trouble of this sort, it is 

 necessary to have the hives well apart, 

 and it depends upon circumstances how 

 far that should be. On a level plain, 

 where there is not a tree, shrub or build- 

 ing in sight, I think it quite possible 

 that there would be some mixing and 

 loss of queens in an apiary of 100 colo- 

 nies if the hives should be placed a rod 

 apart. But on the same spot you might 

 with perfect safety put three hives 

 touching each other, in any possible 

 position. Bees are not good at count- 

 ing, and if a bee has nothing else to go 

 by except to find a hive, which is the 

 fifth from the end in the third row, it is 

 likely to make a mistake. But if the 

 apiary consists of only three hives, the 

 bee does not need to count. It can easily 

 find the one at the left, right or middle. 



So it is a good plan to have the hives 

 at least five or six feet apart, especially 

 as it is more convenient for the operator 

 to have plenty of room between them. 

 At the same time, it is a very fortunate 

 thing, in case it is desirable to economize 

 room, that it is just as well to place the 



