BEE-KEEPING. The apiary or stock of beehives should, of eourse, be situated in a neighborhood where flowers sufficiently abound for the supply of honey. It is, however, by no means certain to what distance bees roam. Some authors mention a mile as the probable distance; but the opinion has apparently been hazarded on mere conjecture, and there seem to be good reasons for supposing that a much greater dis tance might more correctly be named. But what ever distance bees may be capable of traveling in quest of honey, it is undoubtedly of great im portance that they should have good feeding gronnd in the immediate neighborhood of the apiary; and in many parts of the world the practice prevails of removing them from place to place, according to the season, in order that advantage may be taken of the greatest abun dance of flowers. Thus in the south of Scotland beehives are very frequently removed to heath covered tracts in the beginning of August, and remain there till the heath is out of flower; and this affords in many parts of the country the most plentiful honey-harvest, although in other parts, especially where white clover abounds, the greatest quantity of honey is obtained earlier in summer.
As to the form of beehives, and the material of which they should be made, there are great differences both of opinion and practice. Glass hives, and hives with glass windows, which can the owner should have facilities for giving in creased room both above and below the stock hive; increased room above is required for the reception of pure honeycomb unmixed with brood; and the capability of adding to the hive below, by raising it up an additional story, is often requisite to prevent swarming, which is incompatible with the collection of a large store of surplus honey.
Bees require attention at the time of swarm ing, that they may not fly away and be lost. They require also to be fed during winter, when, on account of a bad season, the lateness of the swarm, or other cause, they have not enough honey to support them. A common rule is that the weight of the contents of the hive must be at least 20 pounds, that the bees may survive the winter without being fed; and even in this case a supply of food for a short time in spring promotes the activity of the bees and their sum mer prosperity. The food ordinarily supplied to bees is either the coarser kind of honey or sugar and water. Strong ale and sugar boiled are also frequently given as food. The prac tice has very largely prevailed of killing bees by fumes of sulphur, in order to take from them their honey in the end of autumn, a portion only of the increase of the stock being kept through the winter. This practice still has its advocates; but the majority of bee-keepers take only what they can by top boxes or supers, or by cutting out combs, preserving all hives which are not so light that there is no good hope of their surviving the winter.
When honey is to be taken from bees, the per son doing it must be carefully protected from their stings by gloves, veil, etc. It is best done
during the heat of a fine day, when the bees more readily leave the comhs of the super that is taken away, and return to their hive. A little gentle tapping generally causes them to leave the combs, and a felither is used for brushing off those which are slow to do so. The smoke of the common punall causes them to fall down in a stupor, from which they speedily recover, and its use is very convenient. It is gathered and dried for the purpose. Chloroform is also sometimes used for the same purpose; but the effect is apt to be fatal, unless care is taken to choose the morning of a fine day, so that the stupefied bees may have time to recover in the air and sunshine. Objections which might be raised against stupefying substances for smoking bees do not apply to wood for this purpose, such as hickory or hard maple.
Bees are much less apt to sting when swarming than at other times, and in general all the necessary operations are performed without gloves or veil, and with perfect safety. The sting of a bee is to many persons a thing of no great consequence, although in some it causes great local inflammation and swelling, and gen eral derangement of health. The application of a little ammonia usually relieves the pain; or an onion cut through the middle.
The apiary should, of course, be in a sheltered place, and where it enjoys a good amount of sun shine. The hives are very generally placed at small distances in the open ground, but some bee-keepers protect them by a shed. In the for mer case, each hive is usually covered with a straw hood in winter, to keep away the rain, as dampness is particularly injurious to bees. For be covered at pleasure with wooden slides, are employed by those who wish to observe the move ments and habits of bees; but for profitable purposes, wood end straw are the materials in common use. In some parts of Europe cylindri cal cork hives are much used, made by removing the wood of a portion of the cork-tree, and leav ing the bark uninjured; and hives of earthen ware are common in Greece and Turkey. Frame hives, properly managed, are most successful. The hive which is most used in the United States, and which, with slight modification, has been adopted hi England and her colonies, was invented by Langstroth. It is important that the avoidance of damp. and to prevent the bees from coming in contact with the ground when they hang in a great cluster at the door of the hive—as they often do before swarming, when the weather is hot and the hive very populous— each hive is raised to a height of at least 15 or IS inches from the ground. See HONEY.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Cheshire, Bees and lice KeepBibliography. Cheshire, Bees and lice Keep- ing (London, 1SS5-SS) Langstroth, The Honey Bec (New York, 1889) ; Benton. The Honey Bee: A Manual of Instruction- in Apiculture (Dept. Agriculture, Washington, 1896) ; and _Maeterlinck. Thr Life of the Bee, Eng. trans. (New York, 1901).