56 



MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 



With a swinging motion of the hands and forearms, together with a 

 sort of backward bend, while the elbows are on the knees, hive No. 1, row 

 1, is "swung" from its stand to the ground, immediately by the stand's side. 

 A reserve bottom-board is now placed on the stand, winter or deep side up,i 

 when a right-sized piece of galvanized wire cloth having a %-inch mesh 

 (the same being used as a mouse-guard) is slipped into the saw-kerf made 

 for it on the inside edge of the two-inch strips, which holds the hive that 

 far from the board below. A few 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 Uftiijg 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-guard of %-inch-mesh wire cloth. When the bees are wmtered 



MOUSE-PROOF ENTRANCE; 5-8 MESH; BOTTOM-BOARD WINTER SIDE UP; 

 HIVE-PASTENER WITH STAPLES. 



at the farmer's cellar, who owns the land the out-apiary is located on (and 

 I should always vwnter 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 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 bottom- 



* Most beekeepers now use the deep side of the bottom for both winter and sum- 

 mer, the entrance being contracted when necessary. When the deep side is more than 

 % inch it is necessary to put a rack, made of slats of wood, below the frames to 

 prevent the building of comb in this space during the honey flow. 



