MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 



43 



quite an item here in New York, as they spring up almost by magic in a 

 wet season like this one. From some experiments I have made, by allowing 

 the grass to "block" some hives for this purpose I find that, where badly 

 tangled, the colonies in such hives will not store more than two-thirds as 



MANNER OF PLACING CAGE ON THE COMB. 



much honey during a good basswood yield as will those having a free 

 flightway. 



Dr. C. C. Miller, one of the closest observers in the beekeeping ranks, 

 thinks that a one-third loss is too much to attribute to a "tangled" entrance. 

 But I can not help thinking he has never seen hives as "badly tangled" 

 up with grass as I have. The engraving does not do the "tangled hive" 

 justice. Just imagine the grass growing a foot above the top of that hive 

 and super, and that so thick that you can hardly see through it. Then 

 imagine how it would look after a south wind and rain had "lodged" it 

 right over on the hive and entrance, and left it matted down there for from 

 one to three feet over the "doorway" of the hive, and you will have only a 

 fair idea of what I have seen in apiaries here in York State. Yes, I have 

 seen this "tangle" so bad that it was' fairly filled with pollen-pellets torn 

 from the "baskets" of the pollen-gathering bees. And the strangest thing 

 of it all was that the owners of those "tangled hives" called themselves 

 "beekeepers." 



WHAT IT COSTS THE BEEKEEPER TO LET GRASS AND WEEDS TANGLE UP THE 



ENTRANCE. 



I am led to speak of this for the reason that I have found in many 

 apiaries which I have visited during basswood bloom the bees crawling or 



