AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



is accustomed to his particular kind 

 and has stocked up with an extensive 

 outfit in that line, to make a change. 

 Besides the dollar and cent point of 

 our occupation, contentment of mind 

 is worth a great deal. If we can per- 

 form our daily tasks to our own com- 

 fort and satisfaction, life becomes a 

 pleasure and is worth the living. 



For the benefit of our younger 

 brother beekeepers who have not yet 

 decided which kind of winter case to 

 adopt and are contemplating making 

 a supply during winter for future use, 

 I will enumerate a few pros and cons 

 of the quadruple and straight row 

 case, as I have gathered them up dur- 

 ing my many years of experience and 

 observation. 



The single one-colony case used by 

 many experienced beekeepers with 

 good satisfaction, we will leave out 

 of consideration, as the preference of 

 the majority of beekeepers seems to 

 be one or the other of the two larger 

 kinds. 



When I left my bee-cellar dug into 

 a gentle slope of one of Naples' side- 

 hills nearly twenty years ago and 

 moved to my present location, which 

 is situated on the level plains of Ni- 

 agara County, the wintering protec- 

 tion problem was uppermost in my 

 mind. Although surrounded by or- 

 chards, groves, buildings, etc., the 

 new locality offered no dependable 

 windbreak for my bees, and as win- 

 tering out doors had become a much- 

 talked-of subject at that time, I de- 

 cided to add winter cases to my bee- 

 keeping outfit. 



From my earliest beekeeping days 

 I could see almost numberless advan- 

 tages in keeping bees in straight 

 rows, all facing one way (east or 

 south), and as a natural consequence 

 my choice was the single one-row 

 winter case. Being always cautious 

 when launching out onto new 

 schemes of this sort, wishing to make 

 sure of their practical use, I made 

 only two or three as a trial the first 

 season. In planning my work I made 

 the great mistake of considering the 

 economical side of labor and lumber 

 only, leaving all other, much more 

 important features in the background. 

 I was shortsighted enough to build 

 my cases, or sheds, as I generally call 

 them, for nine colonies, making them 

 as long as 14-foot lumber would al- 

 low without waste. 



When I moved my sheds to the 

 yard (in sections, of course, for I 

 could not handle them all put to- 

 gether) it dawned upon me at once 

 that I had made a great blunder. 

 Where should I get the bees to fill 

 them? It would take the bees from 

 half way across the yard to do it, 

 and to spread them out again in the 

 spring would be a long, disagreeable 

 task. I did not use the unwieldy 

 things a second time, but before an- 

 other packing for winter came 

 around I had them cut into two parts, 

 making a five and three-colony case 

 of each one of them. That relieved 

 me in a measure of shifting my bees 

 first towards the large sheds and 

 then back again to their summer 

 stands in the spring. 

 Since then I have had the five and 



three colony sheds as a mixed lot in 

 my yard and find that the small, i 

 ones are by far the most practical 

 and convenient to use, so much so 

 that I have begun to cut down the 

 larger ones to the smaller size, mak- 

 ing one-colony cases of the cut-off 

 pieces. 



In speaking of the quadruple cases 

 I do not intend to belittle anybody's 

 work or theory. On the contrary, if 

 properly made and rightly managed 

 they give good satisfaction. Some of 

 our best beekeepers use and recom- 

 mend- them, and they know whereof 

 they speak. Economizing heat by 

 way of the enclosed colonies stand- 

 ing side to side and back to back is 

 one of their most important features. 

 In proportion to their cubical ca- 

 pacity they are most economical in 

 regard to the lumber used in their 

 construction, and we all know that it 

 requires less roofing to cover a 

 square than an oblong. 



But it is also an undeniable fact 

 that they have some undesirable fea- 

 tures. For instance, one-half of their 

 inmates have to face the opposite di- 

 rection from the others, always ex- 

 posing one side or the other to the 

 severity of prevailing storms. An- 

 other objection is their clustered po- 

 sition. To have access to all four, the 

 operator is obliged to walk constant- 

 ly from one side to the other and al- 

 ways pass in front of the hives. Be- 

 sides miles of unnecessary travel 

 during the season it has a tendency 

 to irritate the bees; many attacks 

 may be the direct result of this over- 

 sight. 



It is very different with the straight 

 row system, if the apiary is ideally 

 laid out. Rows should be at least 

 ten feet apart and hives should have 

 about two feet between in the rows. 

 When doing any beework during the 

 season it is always one step from 

 hive to hive; the operator is always 

 on the same side (the right side of 

 the hive), which makes all manipula- 

 tions much more convenient; every 

 hive is a seat for the next one and 

 forms a shelf for his tools and at no 

 time is it necessary to come any- 

 where near hive-entrances. 



Our first lessons in geometry 

 taught us that a straight line is the 

 shortest distance between two points. 

 Small and unimportant as this 

 straight line business seems to be, it 

 saves the beekeeper many unneces- 

 sary steps during the season. 1 ap 

 ply this principle systematically to 

 all my beework. and when extracting 

 time comes around I reap special 

 benefit from its application. In a 

 straight line I take my wheelbarrow 

 with comb baskets to the end of the 

 row, and turning around [ have again 

 a straight line back to the honey- 

 house, gathering up combs for tin- ex- 

 tractor from hive to hive. 



When 1 stand in i, win oi iih three 

 hive winter case and compare the 

 • ' lative position., of the entrai 

 the tlirer colonies win n on thi h 

 summer stands ami in tin winter 

 cases, tin- b before ami 



after packing are either ii the same 

 place or so nearly so, all being on the 

 same level and in the same plane 



March 



tllal no drifting or confusion will oc- 

 cur when the change is made. Thus 

 tne three-colony single-row shed 

 eliminates all necessity of shifting 

 bees ,„ the fall, as well as in the 

 spring, which, to my mind, is an es- 

 sential feature. 



I do not use my hive-stands for the 

 sheds, but they are stacked up and 

 set on little blocks; they will last a 

 "• ■ "<«e if lifted out of the ground 

 in the fall and given a chance to dry 

 during winter. A little repair where 

 needed, a nail here and there, will 

 greatly prolong their service. Some 

 "I my stands have been in use over 

 thirty years and are yet in fairly 

 good state of preservation. 

 La Salle, N. Y. 



The word "drifting," use d by 

 Friend Greiner in the latter part of 

 the foregoing article, indicates one of 

 the greatest objections (for us) to 

 the use of the quadruple case, or in 

 fact to any case which requires the 

 moving of the colonies together for 

 packing, and we believe that this is 

 one of the strong points in his meth- 

 od. 



When colonies are moved together 

 for winter and there is occasion for 

 any of their bees to take flight, there 

 is more or less confusion among them 

 in recognizing the new locations. The 

 result often is that the strong colo- 

 nies, making more noise, attract the 

 bees of the weaker ones who "drift" 

 to the appeal. We have noticed this, 

 years ago, and that is what dissuad- 

 ed us from moving the hives at all. 

 But we are inclined to think that per- 

 haps our experience was exceptional. 

 However, lately we have heard so 

 much of colonies "drifting" and the 

 weak ones losing bees to the profit 

 of the powerful ones that we are 

 strengthened in our dislike of mov- 

 ing colonies at all on their stands for 

 winter. Friend Greiner's method 

 avoids the moving, and drifting is not 

 to be feared. — Editor. 



Beekeeping in Santo Domingo 



Bj II. Brenner 



NEARLY three mouths in Santo 

 Domingo, I think 1 can give 

 pretty accurate information 

 about beekeeping conditions here 

 and about land and people. A lady 

 beekeeper in Sanchez made this sea- 

 son from 60 colonics ,50 barrels (SO 

 gallons each) of honey. Even now 

 enough nectar is coming in that I 

 could make strong colonies fill a 

 super with honey. My work at pres- 

 ent is queen rearing, getting the 

 queens in the supers mated and 

 starting new apiaries will; the nuclei. 

 Sanchez is situated at the north 

 end of a bay 30 miles long and 12 

 miles wide, northeast of the island. 

 The bay is really the continuation of 

 the river. On the south side of the 



