■% FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES3 



A space of 2 feet or so is left between one pair of 

 hives and the next pair, so as to leave plenty of room 

 for a seat. 



GROUPS OF FOUR HIVES. 



In two of the apiaries there is a still further economy 

 of room by placing- a second row close to the first, the 

 hives standing back to back. That, you will see, makes 

 the hives in groups of four. I do not know of any 

 arrangement that will allow a larger number of hives to 

 stand on a given surface. The difference in the amount 

 of travel in the course of a year in such an arrangement 

 as compared with one without any grouping, is a matter 

 not to he despised. 



SHADE. 



Trees shade most of the hives at least a part of the 

 day, and at one end of the home apiary the trees were so 

 thick that I cut out part of them. I had previously 

 thought that shade was important, and that with sufficient 

 shade there was never any danger of bees suffering from 

 heat, but after having combs melt down in a hive so 

 densely shaded by trees that the sun did not shine on it all 

 day long, I changed my mind. I value -the shade these 

 trees give, not so much for the good it does the bees, but 

 for the comfort of the operator working at them. I don't 

 believe bees suffer as much from the hot sun shining 

 directly on the hives, as they do from having the air shut 

 off from them by surrounding objects. I have had combs 

 melt down in hives, the honey running in a stream on the 

 grotmd, one of the hives at least being in a shade of trees 

 so dense the sun never shone on it, and I suspect it was 

 for lack of air. A dense growth of corn was directly 

 back of the hives, and a dense growth of young trees and 

 underbrush in front. I didn't know enough to notice this, 

 although when working at the bees my shirt would be 



