76 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



THE MAN WHO WILL CROWD IN UPON OCCUPIED 

 TERRITORY IS AN APIARIAN OUTCAST. 



The second reason is the injustice and 

 the dishonor of the thing. In a ranch 

 country no man would think of cooly 

 coming into a locality and planting him- 

 self on another man's ranch. It inight 

 not be healthy for him; and, besides, 

 other ranchmen would brand him as an 

 interloper. The territory occupied by a 

 iieo-keeper is. properly speaking, a bee- 

 ranch, covering many farms, which are 

 occupied by many different families, but 

 working for the benefit of all. Another 

 bee-keeper planting himself on this occu- 

 pied bee-ranch is also an interloper, un- 

 worthy the respect of his neighbors, and 

 should also be treated as an outcast by 

 bee-keepers, and uuworthy of their 

 respect. 



THE OWNER OF AN OUT-API BRY MUST BE ON 

 FRIENDLY TERMS V'iTH NEIGHRORS. 



This, of course, does not apj^ly to farm- 

 ers, for many a farmer likes to keep a 

 swarm or two or a few swarms. In my 

 territory I even enourage this. It inter- 

 ests thsm in the occupation; and. in all 

 my experience, it has never interferred 

 with my results or success in any respect; 

 and the result has been that they welcome 

 my entrance among them with a yard of 

 bees. Ihave standing offers today from 

 a number of farmers, offering to move the 

 bees to their place, free of all cost, if I 

 will only put bees there; and all the pay 

 any of them ask of me for the use oF 

 their place for my yard and the use of 

 what I need of their vegetable cellar (my 

 choice) for wintering in, is from 70 to 80 

 pounds of extracted honey. I am now 

 offered an acre, such as I may wish to 

 select, and the use of any cellar on the 

 place (there are a number), free of all 

 charges, if ! will only m.ove bees to a 

 certain place, and in a good locality, too, 

 and all this is simply because I have tried 

 to tre^'t ihem all rightly. 1 repeat, it pays; 

 r:,nd I b'.'iie"-,', in the long run. it is the 

 only thing that will lead to success, that 

 we treat everybody rightly v/here we have 



our bees, and that we select strictly un- 

 occupied territory The last item is, I 

 think, vitally essential. 



Locality is one of the first considera- 

 tions. We should first of all familiarize 

 ourselves with the flora of the surround- 

 ing country tributary to the yard. While 

 there may be breaks in the honey flow, 

 yet it should be as continuous as possible 

 from early spring until our main flow, or 

 flows, are upon us. Broken land almost 

 invariably furnishes the greatest variety 

 of flora and most certain flow. If a 

 stream runs by with broken valleys and 

 flat? and ravines, all the better. The 

 early spring and late fall sources of 

 supply should be as near the yard as 

 possible. As the season warms up and 

 the weather settles, the bees can safely 

 go farther for their supplies; but, even 

 then, I prefer to liave them as convenient 

 as possible. In the main flow, especially 

 if it be basswood or buckwheat, they will 

 go farther. My bees gather largely from 

 basswood, and they bring a great deal of 

 their stores from one mile to two and 

 one-half miles. I prefer not to require 

 them to go over 2y2 miles in any case, as 

 it leaves the result quite uncertain. 



GREAT IMPORfANCE OF A SHELTERED 

 LOCATION. 



The locating ..'f the yard is also of the 

 utmost importance. It -hould be in a 

 sheltered locality, with protecting trees 

 on the north and west sides, but so situ- 

 ated as to catch the morning sun as early 

 as possible, thus giving the bees an tour's 

 start in the early morning when most 

 kinds of flowers are yielding at their bast. 

 I do not find there is much difference as 

 to which direction the hives face, except 

 that I prefer to give the bees as direct a 

 flight as possible to and from their hives; 

 but the honey yield is practically the 

 same whichever way they set. The 

 trees on the north and west sides shelter 

 the bees from cold winds in spring, and 

 destructive winds and storms in summer. 

 The trees on the west of the yard begin 

 to throw their shade over the been be- 



