200 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



cation, let me say that over at Port Huron 

 where I met my Waterloo last spring, 

 there was a sheltered nook at one corner 

 of the yard. The wagfon shed, the barn, 

 a hig-h board fence, and one or two big 

 apple trees, all combined to shut off the 

 cold north or west winds. Scarcely a 

 colony perished in that sheltered nook; 

 and even of those that lived, not one was 

 as strong, when I moved them away, as 

 were most of the colonies in the sheltered 

 corner of the yard. Away out in the field, 

 beyond the influence of this shelter, scarce- 

 ly a colony was left alive, and those were 

 weaklings. It seems strange that some 

 of us are so long in learning the true value 

 of outside protection in the winter and 

 spring. 



SHADE NOT ALWAYS AN ADVANTAGE. 



While protection from wind is an ad- 

 vantage in the spring, there must be no 

 shade. In one of our yards in the north 

 there are a few little hemlocks; and Elmer 

 was over there one day in the spring 

 when the bees were going to the brook 

 and filling up on ice water. Many of these 

 water bringers would drop on the ground 

 in front of their hives. Such as were in 

 the sun warmed up, again took wing and 

 eventually gained their homes, but those 

 that dropped in the shade never again 

 took wing. He thinks enough perished 

 that day to have made a fair sized colony. 



The trees in the apiary shown in the 

 frontispiece are small oaks; and the oak 

 is very late in putting on its leaves, hence 

 the bees get the full benefit of the spring 

 sunshine. Too dense a shade is a detri- 

 ment, 1 believe, even in the working sea- 

 son. When these oaks were in full leaf, I 

 have gone there as late as eight o'clock in 

 the morning, and found very few bees fly- 

 ing. It was cool and dark back under 

 the trees, and it seemed as though the 

 bees had not yet waked up, did not realize 

 that it was day. Those colonies near the 

 edge of the woods began work much 

 sooner in the morning. The bees also 

 quit working much earlier at night than is 

 the case with bees in the open field. I 

 don't know how much of a loss comes 



from cutting the working hours short, but 

 it would seem as though there might be 

 some loss from this cause. I think a 

 much better plan would be to set the bees 

 just outside of the woods, instead of under 

 the trees, although the latter plan fur- 

 nishes a delightful place for the bee- 

 keeper to work. 



QUEENS MUST BE CLIPPED WHERE THERE ARE 

 TALL TREES. 



This is the first time that I have had a 

 yard of bees located near tall trees, and, 

 for several years I had given up the clip- 

 ping of the queens' wings, but the first 

 swarm that issued showed me the neces- 

 sity of either clipping or else using traps. 

 I saw the swarm when it began to issue, 

 but kept on with my work until most of 

 the bees were out, and then was quite 

 puzzled, as I looked about, in that I was 

 unable to see the swarm. Finally I looked 

 up directly overhead, and was surprised 

 to see the bees circling about above the 

 tree tops. They finally clustered in the 

 top of a small oak. I had a hive all in 

 readiness, then cut down the tree. As 

 soon as it fell I rushed in with my hive, 

 and succeeded in getting a little more 

 than a pint of bees into the hive. The 

 rest of them took wing and clustered 

 again in the top of another small oak. I 

 cut this down and rushed up with my hive 

 again, when the humming of the bees at 

 the mouth of the hive called in perhaps 

 another quart of bees, but the most of 

 them went up in the air again to whirl 

 about in the space where they had 

 clustered. 1 carried the hive underneath, 

 .and held it up as high as 1 could, with the 

 entrance uppermost. Some of the lower 

 bees of the swarm heard t!"ie call at the 

 entrance and began to come down. Soon 

 tha whole front of the hive was covered 

 with a "calling" mass of bees. 1 set the 

 hive on the ground and all of the bees 

 came down and hived themselves. The 

 next day each queen lost her right wing. 



A FENCE TO KEEP OUT BOYS. 



This piece of woods where the bee yard 

 is located is inside the city limits — just 



