ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 



which will be naturally sought by the 

 tired bee-keeper as the best spot in which 

 to take a breathing spell, is towards the 

 apiary. 



It is universally admitted that it is best 

 that the honey house be upon the side of 

 the apiary, and most bee-keepers are in 

 favor of having the building two stories 

 high, using the upper story as a store 

 room for hives and fixtures, the lower 

 story for work shop and honey room, the 

 latter being partitioned off by itself, and 

 the cellar under the building for winter- 

 ing the bees. The usual mistake in mak- 

 ing such buildings is in not having them 

 large enough. The honey room ought 

 to be located in the southeast corner of 

 the building, and the walls made of some 

 non-conductor of heat. Some even 

 paint the side of the building some 

 dark color where it comes over the hon- 

 ey room, in order that as much as possi- 

 ble of the sun's heat may be absorbed. 

 The idea is that the honey must be kept 

 as warm as possible. If there is any un- 

 ripe or unsealed honey, this high temper- 

 ature causes evaporation and improve- 

 ment. By keeping such a room warm 

 with a stove in winter, honey has been 

 kept over until another year, and actual- 

 ly improved by the keeping. 



But to return to the arrangement of 

 hives. When the honey house is at one 

 side of the apiary, the hives may still 

 be arranged upon the radiating plan, by 

 having them radiate from the honey 

 house door, thus forming one-half of a 

 large wheel instead of the whole of a 

 small one, as in the case of having the 

 honey house in the center. Where the 

 radiating rows are very long they become 

 very iar apart at the outer ends, or else 

 very close together at the inner ends. 

 To remedy this, shorter rows, or "spurs,'' 

 are put in between the rows at the outer 

 ends. 



Another arrangement is that of placing 

 the hives in a hexagonal manner, each 

 hive being the center of six others. I 

 see no particular advantage in this ar- 

 rangement. 



Still another arrangement is that of 

 placing the hives in circles. The en- 

 trances of the hives in the inner row are 

 towards the center, while those of the 

 outer row face outwards. This leaves 

 the space between the two rows compar- 

 atively free from bees, and the operator 

 can work in this space without annoy- 

 ance to himself or the flying bees. If 

 the two circles do not furnish sufficient 

 room, more and larger circles may be 

 added, or there may be two sets of cir- 

 cles, or three sets, arranged in the form 

 of a triangle, or even four sets and ar- 

 ranged in a quadrangle. 



In all of the large apiaries that I have 

 visited the hives were arranged in straight, 

 simple rows, like the squares of a check- 

 er board, the entrances, in some instan- 

 ces, facing the same way when the 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 

 other rows turned towards the west. 

 This would leave each alternate passage- 

 way comparatively free from bees, and 

 the operator could work here without 

 the bees bumping their heads against 

 his. I would have the entrance to every 

 hive face either east or west, because I 

 wish to shade the hives with a light 

 board, 2x3 feet in size, laid over each 

 hive and projecting 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 en- 

 trance of each hive so that it is either 

 east or west. 



There is no necessity of placing hives 

 further apart than is necessary to afford 

 sufficient space on all sides for the oper- 

 ator. Bees do not locate their- hive so 

 much by the distance that it my be from 

 other hives, as they do by its surround- 

 ings; and these surroundings are usually 

 other hives. To illustrate: Let the end 

 hive be removed from a long row of hives, 

 and the bees belonging to the removed 



