THE BEE-KEEPERS* REVIEW 



77 



tween two and three o'clock in the after- 

 noon. This will afford the bees a little 

 relief in the hottest part of the day, and 

 towards evening- the bess will be alto- 

 gether in ths shade, if the sun strikes 

 upon the hives at sunset the bses are 

 tempted to leave ths hives when it is too 

 chilly for work in ths fields, and many, 

 especially in the spring season, bscome 

 become chilled and lost; but if the hives 

 are in the shade at sunset, and for some 

 time before, the air surrounding them be- 

 comes sufficiently cooled so that the bees 

 are not tempted out at a time when it is 

 too cool for work in the fields. I prefer 

 to have my bees commence work as early 

 in the day as possible, when the air is 

 steadily warming up, and retire early 

 when the air is rapidly cooling-. 



I find exposed places so detrimental to 

 bees that 1 will not. under any circum- 

 stances, place any yard in any place ex- 

 posed to the sweep of the winds. I have 

 paid for this knowledge. I will mention a 

 case or two : On one place where I kept 

 bees about 10 years ago. I had the bees 

 for a number of years where the yard 

 was exposed to the sweep of the wind. 

 The yield of this yard fell largely below 

 the average, and it frequently was run at 

 a loss. Finally 1 determined to move the 

 yard, but the man upon whose place the 

 bees were located pressed me to try the 

 place a while longer; so I moved the bees 

 just a short distance, to a sheltered 

 locality, and so situated that the bees, 

 during- all the early spring months, also 

 gathered most of their stores ' without 

 passing over the more exposed places, 

 and since then the complexion of every- 

 thing- has changed. The yield has more 

 than doubled, and this yard is now one of 

 my most profitable yards. The bees 

 were six years in the exposed place, and 

 have now been four years in the sheltered 

 location. I have seen almost one-fourth 

 of the bees in an exposed yard destroyed 

 by two days of heavy wind. It was not 

 so cold but what the bees left the hives, 

 and, going to the field with the wind, were 

 lost struggling- against it on their return. 



Out-apiaries may be placed at distant 

 points, where it may be inconvenient to 

 visit them oftener than four or five times 

 in a season, yet they may be manag-ed 

 with quite satisfactory results. I have 

 netted $1 1.00 per colony in one season 

 from a yard run in this way; but, as a 

 rule, the nearer yards, those which I can 

 take in every eight or nine days, have 

 been the most satisfactory. At present 1 

 run no home yard, and my nearest out- 

 yard is three miles distant, and the 

 furthest of my eight yards is eight miles 

 distant; and all so placed that I could 

 visit every yard, and not drive over 36 

 miles going and coming-. 



Preston, Minn., Feb. 22, 1907. 



[Elsewhere 1 have touched upon one or 

 two of the excellent points in the fore- 

 going article, but I must say a word here 

 in regard to the importance of being upon 

 friendly, sociable terms with the people 

 living near an out-apiary. Particularly 

 should this be true in regard to the family 

 upon whose land the apiary is located. 

 Better pay more than it is really worth 

 for the privilege of locating an apiary, 

 than have the owner of the land feel that 

 he is illy paid. One of our apiaries is 

 located near the home of a farmer who 

 has a small clearing of several acres. 

 Before moving the bees, 1 wrote to him 

 and asked him to clear off the logs and 

 chunks, and cut the few bushes upon a 

 space three or four rods square, back of 

 the old saw mill, where 1 intended to set 

 the bees. 1 enclosed in the letter, a $2.00 

 bill. When 1 came with the first load of 

 bees I found the space all nicely cleared 

 off. In talking with one of the boys, one 

 about a dozen years old, 1 found that his 

 father and mother had cleared off this 

 space with no help, not even the use 

 of a team. The logs had been rolled over 

 and over until off the plat. The chunks 

 had all been picked up, and the brush and 

 berry briers cut. The boy told me that 

 they had worked steadily two whole days. 

 Afterwards, in talking with this man, and 

 telling what a good job he had done, I 



