502 



THE AMERICAJSI BEE JOURNAL. 



crowded up to the top-bars, the 

 worker brood is notunfrequently torn 

 and mutilated when separating the 

 divisions of the brood-chamber. 



But the greatest objection of all is 

 the certainty of having your apiary in 

 a starving condition at the close of 

 the honey season, and that without 

 enough honey over and above what 

 may be obtained from the single 

 brood-chamber hive to compensate 

 for the heavy loss sustained where 

 feeding back to bees honey that has 

 been taken from them, to say nothing 

 of tb» delirium of excitement, and 

 consequent wear on the bees at a time 

 when nature designed that they 

 hhould be quiet. 



I believe that a large majority of 

 1 eekeepers will agree with me when 

 I say that no greater calamity can 

 overtake the bee-keepers than a starv- 

 ing apiary at any season of the year. 

 It is mighty easy to say " feed tli'em," 

 certainly it is, but feeding must be 

 done at a heavy loss of stores, and at 

 a loss in every way.| 



Chrlstiansburg.5 Ky. 



Pacific Rural Press. 



Arranpnieiit of tlie Hives, 



WM. MUTH-EASMUSSEN. 



In laying out the grounds for an 

 apiary, and at the annual addition to 

 the same, it is of considerable impor- 

 tance how the hives are arranged, 

 both in their relative position toward 

 each other and toward the honey- 

 house and other objects on the 

 ground. I will proceed to point out, 

 lirst, the way in which they should 

 not be placed ; second, the different 

 ways in which they may be arranged, 

 both in regard to the safetv and com- 

 fort of the bees, and also in regard to 

 the convenience of the owner. 



Hives should not be placed too near 

 each other, as there is danger of the 

 bees (particularly the younger ones) 

 entering the wrong hive and being 

 killed as intruders; also of the queens 

 making the same mistake when re- 

 turning from their " wedding trip " 

 or in swarming, when a queen with 

 clipped wing running on the ground 

 and finding herself unable to follow 

 the swarm attempts to re-enter the 

 hive. 



Hives should not be placed together 

 on benches, as one hive cannot be 

 examined or manipulated without 

 disturbing all the other hives on the 

 same bench, putting the bees on their 

 guard and making them ready for an 

 attack on the bee-keeper beifore he 

 opens another hive. Benches also 

 afford a convenient runway for «nts, 

 to the great annoyance of the bees as 

 well as their owner. Hives should not 

 be placed near willow hedges, cotton- 

 wood or any other trees which harbor 

 ants, nor under evergreen-trees, 

 which give shade when the bees ought 

 to have the full benefit of the sun. 



A high knoll exposed to severe 

 wind; uneven ground, interspersed 

 with gullies or boulders ; low, damp 

 ground, abounding in grass or weeds, 

 which interfere with the free circu- 

 lation of air around the hives, and 



which harbor toads and other enemies 

 are to be avoided. Close sheds, 

 boarded up on all sides but the front, 

 will make it uncomfortably hot for 

 the bees during summer, and may 

 cause the combs to melt and break 

 down. 



Hives should not be placed in close 

 proximity to dwelling houses, stables, 

 line-fences or public highways, as the 

 bees are liable to be disturbed and to 

 become annoying, and often danger- 

 ous to people and animals; nor near 

 haystacks, as the tire occasionally 

 employed in the apiary may, through 

 an accident, become the cause of a 

 conflagration. Hives should never be 

 placed close against a building or 

 fence. There should be sufficient 

 room so that the operator can stand 

 at the rear of the hives when he is at 

 work, and thereby avoid annoying the 

 bees by being in their way while they 

 are flying out and in at the entrance. 



A clean, sandy plat, free from 

 brush, weeds, bushes, evergreen-trees, 

 boulders and other obstructions, is 

 the best location for any apiary. The 

 ground should have a gentle slope, 

 and the hives face towards the east or 

 southeast, that the morning sun may 

 shine on the entrances, which will 

 induce the bees to fly out earlier in 

 the morning, than if the entrance is 

 shaded. The entrance to all the hives 

 should be in full view from the honey- 

 house, that the owner may see at a 

 glance from which hive a swarm is 

 issuing, or where robbing is going on. 



For the safety and convenience of 

 the bees and queens, the hives should 

 be as near the ground as possible, 

 each hive resting on its separate 

 stand, made of boards, or simply of 

 four bricks or of blocks, sawed from 

 the scantling. When a building is 

 erected, there will often be a lot of 

 ends and waste pieces of scantling, 

 which can be sawed into such blocks 

 instead of using them as kindling and 

 tire-wood. Hives should not be placed 

 directly on the ground, as it will rot 

 the bottom-boards and harbor ants, 

 but the earth may be banked up even 

 with the entrance, so that spiders, 

 toads and lizards cannot find a hiding- 

 place underneath. 



The hives may be placed in long 

 rows, in hexagonal form or in any 

 other position toward each other, 

 which will make it most convenient 

 for the operator, but should always be 

 so far apart that a wheelbarrow can 

 be run between them in any direction. 

 If shade-trees are planted in the 

 apiary, they should be so placed that 

 they do not interfere with such free 

 passage ; they should be kept trimmed 

 up, that the" lower branches do not 

 annoy the bee-keeper at his work, 

 and should be thinned out, when 

 necessary, that they do not give too 

 dense a shade. All other trees or 

 bushes, provided for the swarms to 

 settle on, should be on the outer edge 

 of the apiary. 



A small, running stream, or a well 

 near the apiary, is indispensable. It 

 will be most convenient to have the 

 apiary located at the rear of the 

 honey-house. If the ground is slop- 

 ing, and the house below the hives, it 

 will facilitate the carrying of honey 



from the hives to the house. The 

 space in front of the honey-house 

 should be left unobstructed, so that a 

 team may be driven up to the Iront 

 door. 

 Independence, CH Calif. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Space lietwpen Broofl-Frames. 



GEO. F. ROBBINS, (57—95). 



I am the author of Query, No. 284, 

 and when I sent it in I was anxious to 

 know about it, so while waiting for 

 the answers to the query, I was test- 

 ing the matter myself, and long before 

 the answers came, I had arrived at 

 my own conclusion. However, I read 

 the answers with as much interest as 

 if I had not decided the matter my- 

 self, and I found in doing so that at 

 least one well known and successful 

 apiarist— Dr. Miller— was not so well 

 satisfied as I myself. 



In two cases last spring where I 

 could tind combs thin enough I put 

 nine of them in a 12-inch hive, and I 

 did the same thing several times dur- 

 ing the summer. I found the plan 

 worked tolerably well, when combs 

 not too thick, and that hung straight, 

 could be found. When our frames 

 are exact and true, if we put in only 

 foundation starters,to have them thus 

 close together is an excellent way to 

 get combs built straight. Nothing is 

 much worse than wide spaces for 

 that. But when we come to manipu- 

 late frames so close together we tind 

 it ditlicult, injurious, and ofttimes im- 

 possible. There is notsufticient mov- 

 able space even for very straight 

 combs, and an apiarist of any experi- 

 ence well knows that in numbers of 

 cases, for reasons impossible or in- 

 expedient to help, combs will be built 

 very uneven or to hang crooked in 

 the frame. To be jamming such 

 frames so close together is often very 

 damaging; besides the thinner the 

 comb when capped over the greater 

 the cost of time and material to the 

 bees. 



On the other hand, nothing con- 

 tributes more to make uneven combs 

 than so liberal a space as \14 inches. 

 Moreover, so much space is not the 

 best economy, for two reasons : First 

 —It is a loss, because so much room 

 is unnecessary. Second— The bees 

 will build out and fill with honey so 

 much more of the upper part of the 

 frame. When the space is narrower 

 they will fill the frames with brood 

 almost or quite to the top-bar, and 

 where we practice top-storing, as the 

 most of us do. that is an important 

 item. Hence I am satisfied that for 

 general purposes 1% inches is too 

 narrow a space ; 1% inches is too wide. 

 I have varied the spacing of frames 

 considerably this season, and as the 

 result of my experiments 1 have set- 

 tled down to the conviction that, all 

 things considered, 1% inches from 

 centre to centre is about right. In 

 surplus arrangements worked for ex- 

 tracted honey I hardly want less than 

 IJ^ inches; wider will do about as 

 well. Also, when we confine bees to 



