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THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



April, 



the bees pay for themselves the first 

 year; but since that time prices of 

 honey have gone down, without a cor- 

 responding decline in price of bees, 

 and I have not been able to do so. 

 Competition is inci'easing and yields 

 growing lighter. 



My first out-apiaries were started in 

 1879, at M. B. Miller's place, two and 

 one-half miles away. At this writing 

 I have them scattered at distances 

 varying from four to twenty-nine miles, 

 driving from here to look after them. 



I went into winter quarters this win- 

 ter with 1965 colonies in New York. 

 My other apiaries, situated elsewhere, 

 make the aggregate at this time. 3800 

 colonies. Mj^ brother, D. H., now has 

 650 colonies. 



Groton, N. Y., March 4, 1904. 



P. S. — I have five apiaries with dif- 

 ferent sized frames — bought from dif- 

 ferent bee-keepers Different fraines 

 rquire different manipulation, and that 

 is about all the difference I see in dif- 

 ferent hives. The first requisite to suc- 

 cess is the honey source; .second, the 

 man, and appliances third. Most of 

 my bees are on the original Langs- 

 troth frame — the frame that Mr. L. 

 first presented in his book — nine inches 

 in the clear. I have six or eight api- 

 aries in ten-fram simplicity hives, 

 but prefer the larger size and eight 

 frames, as there is .iust as much comb 

 surface in the latter. Though this hive 

 v.'as not patented it was made so com- 

 plicated that no ordinaiT v-arpentei- 

 could make the mitered .loints. T have 

 never bought but one such hive from 

 the factory. W. E. C. 



NEW^ ZEALAND. 



Aparian Conditions in the Fair Isles Are Not 

 Satisfactory. 



■By G. J. S. Small. 



IN BEING allowed the privilege of 

 addressing the bee-keeping com- 

 munit.v of America, through the 

 columns of the American Bee-Iveeper. 

 I will endeavor to give an outline of 

 how the industry stands a^t the pres- 

 ent day. - ""'■^ 



In order that my readers will bo 

 able to follow and understand my 

 writings, I will ask them to thorough- 

 ly understand the map of Ncav Zea- 

 land, by which they will see '^hat the 



countiy is divided into two islands 

 (North and South), and I may here say 

 that from the North Shore to the South 

 Shore we have temperatures ranging 

 from forty-five degrees in the South 

 to 90 degrees in the North, dunng sum- 

 mer. 



That being so, we have a most fav- 

 ored country for bees. The bee-keep- 

 er can choose what temperature he 

 prefers, the kind of fiora he would like 

 his bees to gather honej^ from— 

 whether from the native bush, white 

 clover or both— with rainfalls and 

 fiora to add to one of the largest hon- 

 ey-producing countries of its kind in 

 the world. 



Then comes the question, "What 

 makes New Zealand produce so little 

 honey? AVhat keeps the prices down?" 

 I will not treat on the last question in 

 these notes, leaving that for a proper 

 and separate threshing out; but I in- 

 tend to represent before you facts that 

 are too true to be passed by with a 

 smile, and hope that after reading 

 them my readers will not jump to the 

 conclusion that this country is no good 

 for bees. But it is not the bees. It 

 is the government. We have no State 

 associations, like other countnes. We 

 have (with one exception) \o bee- 

 keepers' associations to note our 

 rights, as there should be. We have no 

 bee jounaals, no way of advising and 

 teaching the "beginner" as to how he 

 should mana^ his apiary. Our gov- 

 ernment helps poultry farming, fruit 

 growing, vine culture and other indus- 

 tries, yet bee culture receives no aid 

 from the government, though equally 

 worthy and important; and since its 

 introduction, in 1843. it has had an up- 

 hill struggle, making but little ad- 

 vancement during the past twenty or 

 thirty years. Look back twenty years 

 on the past history of the honey bee of 

 our colony, and there we see the bee 

 lirospering. There were thousands of 

 acres of native bush upon whose fiora 

 the bees in their wild state sucked the 

 sweet nectar, thus laying up large 

 stores for winter use in the hollows of 

 trees. There did the early settler see 

 during the summer months dozens of 

 sw%'irms pass over his head man.v of 

 which he succeeded in catching; there 

 was to be seen in the back yard and 

 orchard of those early fathers some 

 ten. fifteen, twenty, fifty and eightj 

 hives of bees in all kinds of boxes, gir 



