OEVOTEO TO ISEEiS ATS)r> HOZVEY, AIVU IIO^IE IjVTI£:R,EST^- 



A. I. ROOT, ^ Published Monthly. 



Publisher and Proprietor, > 



Medina, O. J Established, in ISYS. 



(TERMS: $1.00 Per Annum in Ad- 

 < vance; 3 Copies for %2,bO^ 5/()r©3.75; 

 ClO or more, iSOc. each. Single Number lOt. 



Vol. V. 



APRIL 1, 1877. 



No. 4 



HOW TO AVORK IN THJE SHADE, Ac. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT AKRANGING HIVES. 



were taken 



makins: and 



WrNFIELD, yiage 270, asks, "Do you know a 

 !»i! ^ modern bee-keeper who has lived to the age ol' 

 ^' 75?" How is it with our old friend Mr. Jasper 

 Ilazen who is now 84 or thereabouts ? I would advise 

 Mr. Hubbard to ge: a stick of proper length and 

 Wiickness: ])oint one end and bore into the other a 

 hole large enougli to receive the shank of an umbrella. 

 Tn front of the hive make a hole with a crowbar and 

 put the stick into the hole and the umbrella into the 

 head of the stick, then go ahead on handling bees and 

 be happj-. 



Your illustrated and instructive covers are perfectly 

 •harming, as a page of illustration seems worth a doz- 

 en of explanation. "Doolitlle's Apiary" and "Friend 

 Rice's Apiary'' are worthy of preservation. May we 

 hope to see "Friend Dadant's Apiary" sometime wlien 

 it may come right ? Bat, it seems as if you ask, "Why 

 don't you send a photo of your own, friend K. ?" Well, 

 I believe I could show you handsomer hives than I 

 ever have seen but there are only 2.'5 of them and these 

 much scattered, but we may get them arranged some- 

 time and show you how we look. Meantime would 

 iike to see the "bigger apiaries" if advisable. 



Wm. H. KiEK, Waterbury, Conn., Nov. 24th, '76. 

 Thank you, friend K., for your very ingen- 

 ious idea. Of eourse it will be some trouble to 

 have a stake made and planted near each hive, 

 but it will doubtless be an excellent invest- 

 ment for those who cannot work in the broad 

 glare of the sun. As for us, we never feel bet- 

 ter than when right out in the sun at noonday, 

 and aside from getting burned, we should have 

 no objections to working bareheaded. Where 

 the grape vines are used, the umbrella can 

 readily be slipped into a socket of tin, nailed 

 to one of the trellises. If you use a chalT 

 hive, fasten the socket to the back side of the 

 hive. Planting your hives under trees, will 

 partially answer the same purpose, but we 

 think it pretty well decided that the shade of 

 large trees is not exactly what is wanted. We 

 want all the sunshine we can get on the hives 

 ill the spring and fall, and every morning and 

 evening during the summer mouths, and trees 

 do not give this. Grape vines properly trim- 

 med, seem to answer every purpose, and the 

 fruit amply repays for all trouble. L. C. Root 

 recommends movable roofs for the purpose; 

 these would be expensive, and would be liable 

 to be blown off unless fastened at an addition- 

 al expense, and v>'ould be unsightly unless still i 



more expense 

 painting. 



We must have our apiaries neat and tidy, or 

 how can we expect to enjoy ourselves among 

 the hives V I have a friend living near, who 

 has lately commenced keeping bees, and he 

 seems determined to arrange his hives much as 

 they would look if they had been pitched out 

 of a wagon in the dark. They are at unequal 

 distances, not square with the points of the 

 compass, not in lines any way, none of them 

 set level, some directl}'^ on the ground, some on 

 twisted and warped boards, some set upon 

 broken boxes, and unsightly ditches, brush 

 and crooked rui)bisli, tinish up the picture. 

 We would really have an engraving made of 

 the whole for a warning, were it not that such 

 apiaries are perhaps a familiar sight to you 

 all. While there, we fixed his two chaff hives, 

 in pretty fair shape, and with a bushel of saw- 

 dust to spread around them, they would make 

 a very prettj'^ picture alone. 



Now, my friends, if you place your hives 

 more than (i feet apart from center to center, 

 you are wasting your ground, wasting your 

 time and strength in traveling from one to the 

 other and increasing the labor of taking care 

 of your surplus without beueflitng the bees 

 in the least. You also will gain much by ar- 

 ranging them in the hexagonal shape, for the 

 reasons above given, and if you use hives that 

 are to be shaded, you certainly can have noth- 

 ing prettier than the grape vines. House 

 apiaries are, of course, already shaded, both 

 for the bees and for their owner. 



We shall be very glad indeed to have en- 

 graved cuts of any apiaries tha,t we think may 

 prove interesting and instructive to our read- 

 ers, but we do want to see a little more sys- 

 tem and order than are shown in most of them. 

 Go into our cities, and note the system and 

 order that prevail in their offices and work- 

 shops, especially those recently put up, and 

 see if we are up to the times in our apiaries. 

 It is almost as easy to put things in good 

 shape, as it is to have them iu such woeful 

 disorder, and the time saved in working with 

 our implements afterward, will pay handsome- 

 ly, for the extra expense. An apiary of 15 or 

 20 hives, tastefully and conveniently arranged, 

 will make a very pretty picture. If some of 

 our California friends will send us photo- 

 graphs we will pay all reasonable expenses for 

 taking them. 



