Out- Apiaries 



When a man starts an out-apiary it is because he thinks his home 

 yard overstocked ; that he will get enough more honey for the division 

 to pay for the extra labor incurred. Overstocking is one of the most 

 puzzling questions connected with bee culture. We all know that a 

 locality can be overstocked ; but localities, seasons, and bee-pasture are 

 so variable that it is impossible to lay down any set rules in regard to 

 the number of colonies needed to overstock a locality. It must not be for- 

 gotten that the yield per colony, yes, and in the aggregate, ma}' be dimin- 

 ished to a considerable extent b} overstocking ere the establishment of 

 an out-apiary would be a profitable move. At times of great honey- 

 flows it is probably practically impossible to overstock a locality. The 

 overstocking occurs during the lighter yields. There is occasionally a 

 man, notably Mr. E. W. Alexander, of New York, who made a success 

 of keeping a very large number of colonies in one apiary by feeding 

 during times of scarcit}-. Mr. Alexander secured as high as 75 pounds 

 of extracted honey per colony from 700 colonies in one yard. This ques- 

 tion of how many colonies will justify the starting of an out-apiary is 

 one that must be settled according to the circumstances of each individual 

 case, and can never be- decided with more than approximate correctness. 



I have had no experience with out-apiaries ; but I believe that the 

 majority of the inexperienced have erroneous ideas as to the difficulties 

 and expenses attending the establishing and management of out-apiaries. 

 Land must be bought or hired ; some sort of building or shelter secured ; 

 and a conveyance of some kind will be needed for carrying bees, tools, and 

 supplies. Then in the Northern States there is the preparation of a cellar 

 for wintering the bees, or they must be carted home in the fall and back 

 in the spring, or else protected upon their summer stands. But when a 

 man begins to number his colonies by the hundreds he knows that some- 

 thing must be done. Even if out-apiaries are not so profitable as home 

 apiaries, they are not usually run at a loss, while the removal of the 

 surplus bees at the home \'ard allows that to make better returns. 



When it is finally decided to start an out-apiary, how far away shall 

 it be located? We have been repeatedly told that, ordinarily, three miles 

 mark the limits of a bee's foraging-grounds ; hence if apiaries were placed 

 SIX miles apart there should be no encroachment. But it must be remem- 



