ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 49 



ing bees. If the two circles do not furnish sufficient room, more 

 and larger circles may be added, or there may be two sets of circles, 

 or three sets, arranged in the form of a triangle, or even four sets 

 arranged in a quadrangle. 



In nearly all of the large apiaries that I have visited, the hives 

 were arranged in straight, simple rows, like the squares of a checker 

 board, the entrances in some instances, facing the same way, while 

 hives were from six to eight feet apart. I would prefer to have the 

 entrances of each alternate row turned towards the east, and the 

 entrances of the hives in the other rows turned towards the west. 

 This would leave each alternate passageway comparatively free from 

 bees, and the operator could work here without the bees bump- 

 ing their heads against his. I would prefer to have the entrances to 

 every hive face either east or west, because I wish to shade each hive 

 with a light board, 2x3 feet in size, laid over each hive, and project- 

 ing towards the south, and this projecting board would be in the way 

 of the flying bees if the entrance were upon the south side. When 

 the hives are arranged in rows radiating from a common center, I 

 always turn the entrance of each hive so that it is either east or 

 west. 



There is no reason for placing hives farther apart than is neces- 

 sary to afford sufficient space on all sides tor the operator. Bees do 

 not locate their hive so much by the distance that it is from other 

 hives, as they do by the surroundings; and these surroundings are 

 usually other hives. To illustrate: Let the end hive be removed 

 from along row of hives, and the bees belonging to the removed hive 

 will almost unhesitatingly enter the hive that has become the end 

 hive in the row. Two hives may stand side by side, perhaps almost 

 or quite touching each other, yet each bee has no difficulty in dis- 

 tinguishing its own hive. In a row of three, or four, or even five 

 hives, the same might be said, but, as the number goes beyond this, 

 there is a little uncertainty about the matter. When their hives are 

 in long rows, some bee-keepers arrange them in groups of three or 

 five in the row, leaving a wider space between the groups than there 

 is between the individual hives composing a group. 



The greatest objection to any uniformity of arrangement that 

 makes it difficult for the bees to "mark" their location, is that queens 

 may enter the wrong hive upon their return from their "wedding 

 trip." With my method of management, in which the hive with a 

 young queen is given a new stand to prevent after-swarming, a la 

 Heddon, this difficulty is easily remedied by placing the hive in some 

 location that is easily marked — the end of a row, for instance. When 

 this cannot be done, the hives containing unfertile queens may be 



