560 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



danger of too much heat in the section- 

 cases. 



If I cannot have a queen-excluder 

 attached, in some form, to thick and 

 wide top-bars, I do not want them. If 

 top-bars are % wide, and spaced 8 to 

 the foot, with % inch space between 

 them and the wood-zinc board, burr- 

 combs will be built in sufficient quantity 

 to afford steps for the bees, clear up to 

 the perforations, so that the zinc ex- 

 cluder is virtually the top of the combs 

 in the brood-chamber. 



If % inch space is left on top of the 

 honey-board, not a particle of burr- 

 combs will be built there — in fact, every- 

 thing above the board will be nice and 

 clean; you will be sure that you have 

 not molested the queen ; you will not 

 put on your bee-escape, and at times 

 find that your queen was exploring the 

 upstairs. 



Again, when bees are but slightly 

 disturbed the queen starts, and may get 

 into the sections, and you might take 

 her iixto the honey-house, or she might 

 deposit a few eggs in drone-comb built 

 there, for the more you deprive the bees 

 of drone-comb below, the stronger the 

 probability becomes that the queen will 

 enter the sections, for she will find 

 plenty of dronG^-comb there, if full 

 sheets of foundation are not used. 



Of course, the wood-zinc honey-board 

 will be well fastened down, and need not 

 be removed very often. When loose 

 bottom-boards are used, much of the 

 examining can be done from below, by 

 raising one end of the hive body and 

 using a little smoke, and you can see 

 whether there are queen-cells started or 

 not, or if there is any capped brood. 



When bees are to be- handled most, in 

 Spring, your boards are in the honey- 

 house. Even if the top-bars do sag, all 

 will be nice on top of the honey-board, 

 and should the slats sag in the honey- 

 board, no burr-combs whatever will be 

 built on top. 



Then again, "^g inch is just the right 

 space over a wood-zinc honey-board, and 

 H inch about right over the wide top- 

 bars, for, of course, we do not expect 

 these heavy top-bars to sag, and the 

 bottom slats in many of our section- 

 cases will sag, and in the cenier, over 

 these heavy top-bars there will be only 

 room enough to make a safe retreat for 

 a bee moth, but the slats are now being 

 made much thicker. 



These light boards occupy but little 

 space in the store room, if piled up care- 

 fully, and when in use on the hive you 

 can put ou sections of brood-comb, either 

 without brood in to have them filled 



with honey for extracting, or containing 

 brood, and have queen-cells built in the 

 upper story, a la Doolittle. 



Hive a prime swarm in an 8-frame 

 hive, and by using the honey-board the 

 section-case may be placed on the hive 

 at once, whether combs have been built 

 in it or not, and we do not have to wait 

 three days, until the queen .has begun 

 laying below. I consider that ftiis one 

 feature makes it profitable for me to use 

 the zinc honey-board. 



Welton. Iowa. 



Lane Apiaries in California, 



.T. F. M'IXTYRE. 



One of the greatest drawbacks in try- 

 ing to keep about 500 colonies in one 

 apiary is that the bees are bound to get 

 more or less confused, and to enter the 

 wrong hive. I think this is the chief 

 reason why young queens are so often 

 balled at mating time; and in laying off 

 an apiary, I always try to avoid this as 

 much as possible, and still have the 

 apiary convenient to work. 



When Mr. Wilkin had 500 colonies 

 on the space occupied by the six double 

 rows in the middle, directly above the 

 honey-house, this confusion was some- 

 times quite serious. When a swarm 

 came out in the middle of the day, the 

 lost bees would go with the swarm until 

 it was large enough to fill four hives, 

 when they would ball and kill the queen, 

 and in a few days scatter with other 

 swarms, and thus keep the owner in 

 trouble all the time. 



That part of the apiary in the orchard 

 pleases me better than any other ar- 

 rangement of hives'l ever tried. It is 

 much better than the grapevines. The 

 trees were originally 18 feet apart each 

 way ; but I cut out every other row run- 

 ning up and down the hill, to give the 

 bees a better chance to fly in and out. 

 This gives 36 feet to each double row. 



The two hives take 4 feet, and there 

 is a 5-foot space between the backs, to 

 run up and down with the honey-carts, 

 and 27 feet between the fronts, hives 6 

 feet from center to center in the rows. 

 The bees keep their own hives, and do 

 not work out to the ends of the rows in 

 this orchard part. Queens are not balled, 

 and it is a treat to get into the shade 

 occasionally when taking out honey. 



The high board fence is not designed 

 to keep out thieves, but to protect teams 

 and people from the bees. The water 

 over the honey-house, shown in the en- 

 graving on the next page, is the Sespe 



