Manual of the apiary

by Albert John Cook

If you are to engage as a specialist, then you can select first with reference to society and climate, after which it will be well to secure a succession of natural honey-plants ([Chap. XVI.]), by virtue of your locality. It will also be well to look for reasonable prospects of a good home market, as good home markets are, and must ever be, the most desirable. It will be desirable, too, that your neighborhood is not overstocked with bees. It is a well-established fact, that apiarists with few colonies receive relatively larger profits than those with large apiaries. While this may be owing in part to better care, much doubtless depends on the fact that there is not an undue proportion of bees to the number of honey-plants, and consequent secretion of nectar. To have the undisputed monopoly of an area reaching at least four miles in every direction from your apiary, is unquestionably a great advantage.

If you desire to begin two kinds of business, so that your dangers from possible misfortune may be lessened, then a small farm—especially a fruit farm—in some locality where fruit-raising is successfully practiced, will be very desirable. You thus add others of the luxuries of life to the products of your business, and at the same time may create additional pasturage for your bees by simply attending to your other business. In this case, your location becomes a more complex matter, and will demand still greater thought and attention. Some of Michigan's most successful apiarists are also noted as successful pomologists.

For position and arrangement of apiary see [Chapter VI].

CHAPTER V.
HIVES AND BOXES

An early choice among the innumerable hives is of course demanded; and here let me state with emphasis, that none of the standard hives are now covered by patents, so let no one buy rights. Success by the skillful apiarist with almost any hive is possible. Yet, without question, some hives are far superior to others, and for certain uses, and with certain persons, some hives are far preferable to others, though all may be meritorious. As a change in hives, after one is once engaged in apiculture, involves much time, labor and expense, this becomes an important question, and one worthy earnest consideration by the prospective apiarist. I shall give it a first place, and a thorough consideration, in this discussion of practical apiculture.

BOX-HIVES.

I feel free to say that no person who reads, thinks, and studies—and success in apiculture can be promised to no other—will ever be content to use the old box-hives. In fact, thought and intelligence, which imply an eagerness to investigate, are essential elements in the apiarist's character. And to such an one a box-hive would be valued just in proportion to the amount of kindling-wood it contained. A very serious fault with one of our principal bee-books, which otherwise is mainly excellent in subject matter and treatment, is the fact that it presumes its readers to be box-hive men. As well make emperors, kings, and chivalry the basis of good government, in an essay written for American readers. I shall entirely ignore box-hives in the following discussions, for I believe no sensible, intelligent apiarists, such as read books, will tolerate them, and that, supposing they would, it would be an expensive mistake, which I have no right to encourage, in fact, am bound to discourage, not only for the benefit of individuals, but also for the art itself.

To be sure of success, the apiarist must be able to inspect the whole interior of the hive at his pleasure, must be able to exchange combs from one hive to another, to regulate the movements of the 'bees: by destroying queen-cells, by giving or withholding drone-comb, by extracting the honey, by introducing queens, and by many other manipulations to be explained, which are only practicable with a movable-frame hive.

MOVABLE-COMB HIVES.

There are, at present, two types of the movable-comb hive in use among us, each of which is unquestionably valuable, as each has advocates among our most intelligent, successful and extensive apiarists. Each, too, has been superseded by the other, to the satisfaction of the person making the change. The kind most used consists of a box, in which hang the frames which hold the combs. The adjacent frames are so far separated that the combs, which just fill them, shall be the proper distance apart. In the other kind, the frames are wider than the comb, and when in position are close together, and of themselves form two sides of a box. When in use, these frames are surrounded by a second box, without a bottom, which, with them, rests on a bottom board. Each of these kinds is represented by various forms, sizes, etc., where the details are varied to suit the apiarist's notion. Yet, I believe that all hives in present use, worthy of recommendation, fall within one or the other of the above named types.