DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEES .^AISTEt HONEY 
voi. n. 
NOVEMBER 1, 1874. 
No. XI. 
HOW TO CONDUCT AN APIARY. 
No. 11. 
\f?T is with considerable hesitation that we 
2| undertake to advise at all as to what shall 
be done in the Apiary this month. If any col- 
onics are without food now, perhaps the only 
tiling that can be done is to unite them until 
they have sullicient. About the 20th, in this 
locality is the proper time to put them in-doors. 
Reports seem to indicate that nothing is very 
well decided in regard to what the frames 
shall be covered with. Some ventilation to 
carry off the moisture seems many times abso- 
lutely necessary, aud straw mats perhaps fur- 
nish the proper amount better than anything 
else. Quilts would probably come next if not 
too much covered with propolis, and even then, 
where they are not glued down too closely 
around the edges they often do very well. 
Many also seem to be quite successful in using 
only the old fashioned honey boards. Lest the 
bees might get damp perhaps they had better 
be raised slightly iit the back end, say the 
thickness of a C penny nail for instance. This 
ventilates between all the combs more effectu- 
ally than openings in the board. The need of 
this ventilation is only during the coldest 
weather. 
Where bees can fly frequently, or after March 
1st, in our locality, we would have the cover- 
ing over the frames as tight as we could possi- 
bly make it. Leaving an empty space beneath 
the frames seems to give no positive advantage, 
and for wintering the Simplicity hive perhaps 
'tis as well to carry in bottom-board and all, 
simply removing the doorstep. To avoid car- 
rylng in a lot of dirt sticking to the bottom 
boards ’twill be well to raise the hives up from 
the ground on thin sticks after the flying sea- 
son is about over, and before much wet weath- 
er has set in. If the hives stand permanently 
on a square frame of inch sticks, they will 
always be ready to be lifted without carrying 
rubbish along with them : we would not have 
the hives more than one inch from the ground 
in the working season. 
The following is just at hand : 
, Ji'oa’t want a “horse anil wagon” nor a “penny 
oV. i but help. 1 have 13 stocks of bees In I, ang- 
strom hives, one or two of which tire not strong, anil 
i wish to unite them with others. Now what 1 wish 
"‘you Is to inform me in plain terms how to do it 
tl... a' "he oilier day I was examining a lilvc, the 
~}®t frame taken out 1 laid near the hive and when I 
nas done, put the frame back ill its place, with about 
' hul of bees that i took to be robbers, and the 
■ml !y°™*lg I found about that number dead on the 
,, ■ ... 8 board; and I am afraid If I unite a large 
Puintity they would be treated In the same wav. 
John Ouikh, Baltimore, Md. Oct. 5th, 1871. 
After cool weather has set in, simply kill the 
poorest Queen if you have a choice, and then 
lift bees comb and all, from one hive into the 
other. If they are allowed quietly to remain 
on their own combs, we believe they never 
sting each other. Close up the hive and let 
them “lix it" when they get ready. If you can- 
not manage to get each colony on five' combs, 
go to both the day before uniting and remove 
all but five of the most desirable combs, pla- 
cing the combs of one of them in the middle of 
the hive. Next morning while it is vet quite 
cool you will find all the bees on tlie combs 
and they can be then carried to the other hive, 
losing scarcely a bee. If the weather 
is warm soon after this, some bees will go back ; 
these will cluster on an empty comb if it is 
given them, and can then be taken back at 
night. After a few days cool enough to pre- 
vent flying most of them will remain. Caging 
Queens in cold weather is so risky that we 
would not advise it even though a Queen be 
killed occasionally in uniting. We would not 
advise any one to purchase or attempt to in- 
troduce Queens, in Oct. or Nov. 
Most of our readers are probably aware that 
a strong swarm will stand almost any degree 
of cold for a short time with no apparent harm, 
and that out-door wintering would on some 
accounts be the most desirable, were we sure 
of having a “warm spell” as often as once in 
ten days or two weeks, to allow the bees to 
exercise, and to bring a fresh supply of un- 
sealed honey into the cluster. Bees seem to 
find difficulty in going over to another part of 
the hive among heavy sealed combs, during 
zero weather. Quinby argues in view of this, 
that unless bees can be housed in a warm 
place, they had much better be left out, to take 
the chauces of occasional sunshine; and also, 
that unless we have as many as 50 in one room 
we cannot expect it to keep above freezing. 
Therefore, a wintering house, if it is to contain 
less than 40 or 50 stocks, must have walls so 
thick and warm that it would be like a cellar, 
almost or quite frost proof if it contained no 
bees; otherwise your repository is in danger 
of being little better than an open shed on 
the north side of a barn, in fact the very worst 
place you can select. Covering hives with 
straw, or corn stalks, just enough to exclude 
the sun is about as objectionable. They are 
partially shielded from the winds ’tis true, but 
does this compensate for the loss of the sun- 
shine '! 
During the past winter a neighbor (A. A. 
Rice, Seville, this Co.) gave his “a fly’’ four or 
five times during the winter, aud the whole, 30 
