248 MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
-allowed to grow up at the entrance of the hive. A lawn mower can be 
used to good advantage in keeping the grounds in and around the 
apiary in good condition. 
As before said, the above are more or less ideal conditions. Bees 
can be kept in a great many places with profit that are far from con- 
forming to the above conditions. City people even manage to keep 
bees by setting them out on the roof or a back porch where the line 
of flight is clear so that there is no danger of interfering with neigh- 
bors. 
The size of the apaiary will depend on various factors, chief among 
which will be the time and inclination of the bee keeper, and the natural 
flora present, from which the bees may gather nectar. The number 
lig. 11.—An apiary in Maryland. 
of colonies of bees which a given locality will support will vary, and the 
beginner as he gradually increases his colonies from year to year, must 
determine the point at which he must cease increasing at the home 
yard and begin the establishment of out apiaries. 
It is believed that it is best to err on the side of too few colonies, 
rather than too many, although there is some reason for believing 
that the number of colonies which may be kept in one apiary has often 
been underestimated. 
If the bee keeper is not yet willing to give all of his time to the bees, 
then the home yard may be crowded so that 100 or 125 colonies may 
be maintained there under Maryland conditions. But if practically 
all of the time is to be devoted to the bees, it might often be better 
to establish out apiaries maintaining only about 50 colonies in a yard. 
