54 



A YEAR'S WORK IN AN OUT-APIARY 



puffs of smoke are now blown in at the entrance of the hive, when the 

 point of the ever useful piece of wagon-spring is thrust into the same, 

 and, with a lifting motion, the bottom-board is made to part from its 

 place through the breaking of the propolis which has been used during 

 the summer to fasten it there. 



With the same swinging motion, as before, the hive is almost 

 instantly on the newly prepared bottom-board, and brought forward till 

 it touches the mouse-gard of %-inch-mesh wire cloth. When the bees 

 are wintered at the farmer's cellar, who owns the land the out-apiary 

 is located on (and I should always winter them there if possible), this 

 mouse-guard is an absolute necessity, as a former experience of rat- 

 and-mouse-destroyed combs and bees told me. Hive No. 1 now has an 

 entrance two inches deep the whole width of the hive, all open except 

 the wire cloth. This must be tightly closed in some way for a month 

 or so, or until the bees are set in the cellar, to prevent robber bees from 



THE LIFTING-SWINGING MOTION. 



gaining access to the honey in the hive. This is best done with a piece 

 of galvanized iron, the same size as the mouse-guard, having a piece 

 three inches long by % inch deep cut from the bottom side of it, when 

 It is slipped down in the saw-kerf on the outside of the guard. 



Having No. 1 thus ready for cellar wintering, the bees on the bot- 

 tom-board, if any still adhere, are jarred off in front of the hive, and I 

 go to No. 2, treating it in the same way I did No. 1, only using the 

 bottom-board from No. 1 instead of a "reserve" by turning it deep side 

 up. In this way I keep on till all are thus treated. 



By this swinging process, as here given, which I always use in 

 changing the bottom-board both in fall and spring, there is not half 

 the fatigue and none of the backache that are experienced by the usual 

 way of lifting hives which are heavy with honey; and I would recom- 

 mend it to any and all, in any and every place where it can be used 



In this change of hives and bottom-boards, any that are light in 

 stores are quickly detected; and if any such are found, they are so 

 marked as I go along. I do not find any of these light colonies oftener 

 than once in three or four years; and when I do, all that is necessary 



