176 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



increase, for twenty years ago out apiaries 

 ■were hardly worth talking about ; and to the 

 man who runs out apiaries no subject is of 

 more intense interest than this same pre- 

 vention of swarming. So I am not without 

 hope that some one will strike on something 

 better than we yet have. Five years, maybe 

 two years, from now, you'll devote a whole 

 number to prevention of swarming. 

 Marengo, 111., Oct. 8, 18i)0. 



Go Slow in Starting Out Apiaries. — Have 

 Them Six Miles Apart, and Kaise Ex- 

 tracted Honey.— Numerous Pointers. 



E. FBANOE. 



'ES, I have had considerable experi- 

 ence with out apiaries, and, as I am 

 well aware that many bee keepers 

 are thinking of branching out in that 

 direction next spring, I will just say, if you 

 have a good location, at home, all to your- 

 self, that is, no bees to amount to much 

 within four or iive miles, and have not over 

 100 colonies, you will make more money, 

 with the same labor and expense, to keep 

 them all at home. But perhaps your home 

 locality is not as good as you can get four or 

 five miles away. 



If I could have my locations to suit me, 

 six miles would be my preference. But we 

 cannot lind a location to just suit us. Either 

 the pasture is not as good as we would wish, 

 or there are more or less Jbees already on the 

 location than there should be for profit, or, 

 as in our case, there is a splendid locality 

 right out that way — everything all right ex- 

 cept those 2wsky thieves that live there — if we 

 go there, there will be trouble. Better keep 

 away. And I think by the time one gets 

 several out apiaries under headway he will 

 find a great many things not very pleasant 

 or profitable, either. I know we are apt to 

 reason about like this : The home apiary 

 pays well, now I will just put another 100 

 colonies in an out apiary and double my 

 profits ; then another, and thrible them, and 

 so on. But the chances are that everything 

 will not work to our advantage, or as we 

 would wish. 



In picking out a location for an out apiary 

 go, if possible, six miles from the home 

 apiary ; surely not less than four miles. 

 Then be sure of good pasture — nearly, or 

 entirely, unoccupied by others — and good, 

 honest inhabitfftits, if possible. 



Now I will just say how we are doing. We 

 have six out apiaries and one at home, (S.W 

 colonies in all, nearly equally divided as to 

 numbers. Some of ours are too near to- 

 gether. This poor season tells us very plain- 

 ly that in some places there are too many 

 bees. 



We work altogether for extracted honey, 

 winter out doors, clip our queens, make all 

 of our new swarms by dividing, hire help 

 enough to go from home and work the whole 

 of one out apiary and come back home again 

 in one day. There is no one to look after 

 the bees when we are away. We have an 

 extractor at each yard, all other tools we 



carry with us. Through the extracting season 

 we go with two teams, one to carry the hands 

 and the other to haul home the honey. As 

 rent for bee pasture or pay for a place to 

 put the bees, we pay twenty-five cents per 

 colony, spring count. We use a tent ten 

 feet square, for an extracting house. We 

 carry the tent with us, and pitch it every 

 day. 



There are a great many other things that 

 I could mention, but I ain in a great hurry 

 just now, as I just got a notice to go, early 

 in the morning, with the team, fifty miles, 

 and have got to get ready, and it is now 

 sundown — so if I have failed to interest you 

 I am sorry. 



Platteville, Wis., Oct. 12, 1890. 



Doubts About Overstocking. — Go Slow in 



Starting Out Apiaries.— Have Them Five 



Miles Apart.— They can be Managed 



on the Visiting Plan. 



.JAMES HEDDON. 



^ you know that I am just now, after 

 reading your leader in last issue on 

 the above subject, thinking that you 

 make it harder for me to write for 

 the Review than it is for anyone else ? You 

 and I work so very nearly alike, have com- 

 pared notes so often, learned of each other, 

 discarded each other's mistakes and adopted 

 each other's valuable discoveries to such an 

 extent that your leaders cover up pretty 

 nearly all the ground which I should traverse 

 in an article on the subject. Had I written 

 this article without reading your leader, 

 your readers would have called it plagiarism. 

 Really, there is nothing left for me to say, 

 except perhaps to take a few exceptions. 



I will lay down with additional emphasis 

 the statements that, first, the idea ot over- 

 stocking is the parent of out-apiaries, and 

 second, that overstocking is something I 

 never yet could find out anything about, and 

 I have not only carefully considered my 

 own experience but carefully catechised 

 others of equal or lai'ger exijerience. After 

 over twenty years specialty in the produc- 

 tion of honey, I do not yet know whether 

 you can overstock a locality at all, or not. 

 1 do not know that I ought to pulilish to my 

 brother bee keepers my impressions. It 

 would seem that settled opinions were bet- 

 ter, but I will say that I am of the impres- 

 sion that I would run up to a surprising 

 number of colonies in one apiary before I 

 would establisli an out apiary. You and 

 many of your readers all know that I have 

 had considerable experience with out apiar- 

 ies, and that my new hive is par excellence 

 for that system of honey production as well 

 as the moveable system ; that is, moving 

 colonies about to catch the different honey 

 Hows. True it is considerably more expen- 

 sive ; yes, a large per cent more, to keep 

 several hundred colonies of bees in two or 

 three apiaries than to keep them all in one. 

 I am sorry you contracted the successful 

 distance to four miles. My apiaries are six 

 miles apart ; yes, nearly seven, and surely I 

 would not advise less than five miles. You 



