VOL LIX— NO. 1 1 



HAMILTON, ILL, NOVEMBER, 1919 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YEAR 



SUCCESS WITH OUTAPARIES 



BY M. G. DADANT 



WHERE one beekeeper twenty 

 years ago was an outapiarist, 

 probably more than fifty are 

 today. We are apt to lay this to 

 improved methods of beekeeping and 

 to the initiative of the modern bee- 

 keeper, who keeps bees for a living, 

 rather than as a side issue. Yet when 

 we look back over the methods of 

 transportation and the difficulties 

 encountered by the successful out- 

 apiarist, the wonder is that there 

 were then so many outapiaries. The 

 territory of each apiarist was nat- 

 urally limited by the distance he was 

 able to travel with a team of horses, 

 and the number of colonies he could 

 keep, by the number he was able to 

 look after with the time at his dis- 

 posal. Half of the time was used in 

 travel to and from the apiary. The 

 moving of bees was an extraordinary 

 hard job, owing to the danger of 

 stings, with horses, and the long 

 time needed on the road, and hours 

 were long under almost any condi- 

 tions. 



Well do I remember one of my first 

 trips at turning the extractor at one 

 of our outapiaries about twenty 

 years ago. This apiary was only 

 about 5 miles from home, but we were 

 extracting during a dearth of honey, 

 and we were, moreover, using a tem- 

 porarily vacated' dining room of the 

 farmer's house for extracting. This 

 necessitated replacing the supers on 

 the hives at nearly dark. I had gone 

 to the outapiary with our man and 

 the team. By the time extracting 

 was done and the supers returned to 

 the hive, it was after 9 o'clock and 

 the rain had started falling. We still 

 had our wagon to load and the five- 

 mile trip home. Before we had 

 traveled half the distance, the rain 

 was falling in torrents, and by the 

 time we reached the home place we 

 were drenched, and it was nearing 

 midnight. Naturally, my mind did 

 not turn to the possibility of ever 



having access to territory fifty or 

 more miles away, nor the possibili- 

 ties of moving bees such a distance 

 to catch an extra crop, and I rather 

 leaned (that evening at least), to- 

 wards less bees and all kept in the 

 home apiary. 



There are several things necessary 

 to make a successful outapiarist, and 

 foremost of these, of course, is a 

 thorough knowledge of beekeeping 

 practice. Necessary as it is to be a 

 beekeeper, rather than a keeper of 

 beehives, for success in the home 

 apiary, it is doubly so for the out- 

 apiarist. 



He must know what is necessary at 

 the outapiaries at all seasons of the 

 year. In winter, the entrances may 

 become clogged with ice if bees are 



wintered out-of-doors, or the tem- 

 perature may be variable in the cel- 

 lar. 



If improperly put into winter quar- 

 ters there may be spring dwindling. 

 Early examinations will have to be 

 made in the spring to close up dead 

 colonies, and contract the entrances 

 of the weaker ones. When weather 

 permits, more minute examinations 

 of each colony for queens, food store, 

 and disease, will have to be made. 

 Drone-laying colonies and queenless 

 ones should be united to strong colo- 

 nies, and winter packing removed. 



As the crop approaches, the bees 

 should be prepared for it, so as to 

 have a maximum producing force 

 ready for the crop when it arrives. 

 Supering should be done at the right 



An outyard in Mississippi river bottoms, property of E. A. Welch, Quincy, 111. 



