130 Advanced Bee Culture 



turage, there is almost a certainty of securing a crop each year from some 

 of them. 



The difficulty in the past in managing out-apiaries for comb honey 

 has been that of controlling swarming; but the discovery of "shook 

 swarming" changed all this, and gave a wonderful impetus to the estab- 

 lishment of out-apiaries. By visiting an apiary once a week, and "shak- 

 ing" every colony that has started queen-cells, there will be little if any 

 swarming. A few bee-keepers succeed in preventing swarming by re- 

 moving the queens at the beginning of the swarming season, but the 

 practice has never been generally adopted. 



As many colonies ought to be placed in an out-apiary as the location 

 will bear — certainly enough to make a day's work at each visit during the 

 busy season, as it would be unprofitable to drive ofT five or six miles to do 

 only part of a day's work. 



In those parts of the country where outdoor wintering is uniformly 

 successful there need be no question as to how bees shall be wintered at 

 an out-apiary ; but where cellar wintering must be depended upon, a 

 choice must be made between building a cellar at each apiary and that of 

 carting the bees home in the fall and out again in the spring. If the 

 bee-keeper knows positively that an apiary is permanently located it may 

 be worth while to consider the construction of a cellar on the ground; 

 but usually there is more or less shifting about of out-apiaries, and, unless 

 too far from home, I should be inclined to follo\v Mr. P. H. Elwood, of 

 New York, in bringing them home in the fall and carrying them out in 

 the spring. Mr. Elwood sometimes has as man\- of 1,000 colonies in one 

 cellar. Mr. E. D. Townsend, whose out-apiaries are widely scattered, 

 buries his bees or puts them in "clamps," as it is called; and where the 

 soil and location are suitable this is an excellent method of wintering bees. 



