MORNING SUN BENEFICIAL—OUT-DOOR APIARY. 283 
should not be near any thoroughfare travelled by horses, as during 
warm weather, when horses are in a state of perspiration, they are 
very offensive to the bees. Hens and ducks sometimes are very de- 
structive on bees. I have known them to lig about the apiary, and 
every bee that came in their reach was sure to fall a victim to them. 
INFLUENCE OF THE MORNING SUN BENEFICIAL. “!. 
Many bee-keepers do not appear to consider that the morning sun 
has any beneficial effects upon the labors of the bees. I have in nu- 
merous instances seen apiaries located on the north and west side of 
buildings and trees, where the sun would not shine upon them until 
the latter part’of the day. This I consider decidedly injurious to the 
prosperity of the bees, and any one that doubts it let him try the ex- 
periment, and set one hive on the east side of a fence or building, and 
one on the north or west side, and see which will commence their 
labors first in the morning; the result will be, that the bees in the 
hive that the sun will shine upon at its rising, will usually commence 
work at least one hour earlier than those standing in the shade. During 
the middle of the day, the sun beating in all its power and heat upon 
the hives not only does them no good, but does them injury, as it is 
often so oppressive to the bees, as to cause them to nearly suspend 
their labors in the hive, and cluster outside, and. in many instances 
melts down the combs, and often ruins the family. I want the sun 
to shine upon my hives in the morning, until about ten o'clock; after 
that I consider it does them no good. Therefore, if possible, let the 
bee-house (if it be an open one) stand fronting east, or nearly ; if it bear 
a little to the south of east it will be full as well, and let the roof or 
covering be so constructed as to form a shade for the hives during 
the middle of the day, or after ten o’clock in the morning. 
OUT-DOOR APIARY. a 
If the apiary be an out-door one, and the hives occupy single stands, 
they should be protected from storms, and the rays of the sun, by a 
roof of some kind, about three feet square; this should be supported 
a few inches above the hive by four posts set in the ground, sufficient 
to prevent it from being blown down; the rear post should be a few 
inches shorter than the front ones, so as to give the roof a little pitch 
