4'') .Idvaiiccd Bcc Culture 



west, because I wish to shade each hive with a Hght board, 2x3 feet in 

 size, laid over each hive, and projecting toward the south, and this pro- 

 jecting 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 radi- 

 ating from a common center I always turn the entrance of each hive so 

 that it is either east or west. 



There is no reason for placing hives further apart than is necessary 

 to afford sufficient space on all sides for the operator. Bees do not 

 locate their hive so much by the distance that it is from other hives as 

 they do by the surroundings ; 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 hive will almost unhes- 

 itatingly enter the hive that has become the end hive in the row. Two 

 hives may stand side by side, perhaps almost or quite touching each 

 other, yet each bee has no difficulty in distinguishing its own hive. In 

 a row of three or four or even five hives, the same might be said; but 

 as the number goes beyond this, there is a little uncertainty about the 

 matter. When their hives are in long rows, some bee-keepers arrange 

 them in groups of three or five in the row, leaving a wider space between 

 the groups than there is between the individual hives composing a group. 



The greatest objection to any uniformity of arrangement that makes 

 it difficult for the bees to "mark"' their location is that queens may 

 enter the wrong hive upon their return from their "wedding trip." With 

 my method of management, in which the hive with a young queen is 

 given a new stand to prevent after-swarming, a la Heddon, this difficulty 

 is easily remedied by placing the hive in some location that is easily 

 marked — the end of a row, for instance. When this can not be done, 

 the hives containing unfertile queens may be marked in some conspicuous 

 manner that will easily enable them to distinguish their own hives. 



In queen-rearing it is important that the small hives, containing the 

 nuclei, be scattered about promiscuously ; the greater the irregularity and 

 oddity of the arrangement, the less will be the loss of queens from their 

 entering wrong hives ; but in a large apiary managed fcr honey, it is 

 doubtful if there is a more practical arrangement than that of placing 

 the hives in rows ; and it seems to me that a little is gained, and nothing 

 lost, by having the rows radiate from the hone>-house door. 



