FIFTY YEAES AMONG THE BEES 99 



an arrangement as compared with one without any grouping, 

 is a matter not to be 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 tliem. 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 di- 

 rectly 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 ground, 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 as wet as if dipped in the river. I had the young 

 trees thinned out and trimmed up, the corn-ground in grass, so 

 the air could get through, and now I work with more comfort, 

 and no comb has melted down for 30 years. 



Sometimes I have found it desirable to shade one or more 

 hives singly. An armful of the longest fresh-cut grass obtain- 

 able is laid on the hive-cover, and weighted down with two or 

 three sticks of stove-wood. But I do not think anything of the 

 kind is needed on double covers. 



MOVABLE SHADE. 



For hives that are not in the shade, especially during cer- 

 tain parts of the day, a movable shade (Fig. 58) is a great 

 comfort to the operator when the sun shines with blistering 

 heat. Four standards are made of 7/16-inch rod iron. Take a 

 piece of the iron 6 feet 2 inches long ; bend the upper end into 



