14 



MANAGEMENT OF OUT-API AEIES 



rows are ten feet apart from center to center, and the hives are six feet 

 apart in the row, a distance I prefer to any thing else, after having tried 

 distances both less and greater. When I bought this out-apiary it had only 

 22 colonies in it; and as I thought at that time that I did not care to 

 increase the number to more than 30 colonies, it was laid out and planned 

 for that number. And as, later on, I was overworked to an extent that re- 

 trenchment was considered rather than enlarging, it has remained the same 

 as when first laid out. The picture, as used herein to illustrate how the grass 

 is mown in the apiary, does not fully tell how the hives are located in the 

 same. I consider the hexagon plan the best of any known plan for a bee- 

 yard, as by this plan no one hive is directly in front of any other in the 

 row behind it. In this way the bees flying from hive 15, in the second row, 

 do not come in contact with the apiarist while he is at work with colony 5 

 in the first row, as they must necessarily do were the hives set down as in 

 the picture. The picture to be exact should place hives 1 and 21 IVa feet 

 nearer the fence on the east side, and hive 20, 11/2 feet nearer the fence on 

 the west side. In this way the line of flight for the bees from hive 15 would 



USE OP HIVE AS TEMPORARY STAND; HIVE B ABOUT TO BE TRANSFERRED 



THERETO. 



be between hives 5 and 6, and when thus placed the apiarist would not be 

 interfered with while manipulating either of these colonies by the flying 

 bees striking against him, nor would the army of bees going and coming 

 from 15 be inconvenienced by striking him or being obliged to fly around 

 an object they are not accustomed to. Many beekeepers do not seem to 

 realize the annoyance and confusion caused a colony of bees by standing 

 or working within the range of their flight from and to the entrance of their 

 home. At least, it would seem by the "stand" they take when visiting 

 my apiary. My first object when buying this apiary was the forming of 

 nuclei for queen-rearing at the home yard, as bees, no matter what their 

 age, brought four or five miles from home, do not return so as nearly or 

 quite to spoil a nucleus newly made, as do the bees taken from the same 

 apiary. 



My experience, based upon the time taken to work this 30-colony 

 apiary by the plan here given, is that from 60 to 75 colonies would be the 

 right number for each out-apiary to be worked by one energetic man, in a 



