The apiary should be located where no surface water will collect during heavy storms, yet the ground should not be very uneven, but rather a gentle slope. In the colder portions of the United States a south-eastern exposure is decidedly preferable, though in the South the slope of the site is less important to the welfare of the bees; a direct southern or south western exposure, however, will be found extremely uncomfortable at times both for the operator and for his bees. A windbreak, such as a board fence, a hedge, or a row of evergreens on the north and west, is advisable as a protection against sharp winds in winter and early spring, which keep many bees from reaching their hives even when near the entrances. Some shade is desirable, yet such density as to produce dampness is extremely detrimental. In moist elevated regions, which are of course cool, no shade will be needed, except temporarily for newly hived swarms. Tall trees are objectionable in or near the apiary, because swarms are likely to cluster so high as to render their capture difficult and dangerous. Some of the self-hivers or nous warming devices now offered for sale may with improvement yet accomplish the end in view, but heretofore clipping one wing of each laying queen and using all precautions to prevent after-swarming, making artificial swarms, selection in breeding, or any other means known to limit swarming, have not sufficed to prevent the occasional issuance of a swarm with a queen having wings. Therefore it is advisable to have the apiary located under or near low trees, where the hives can be readily seen from the house. Carniolan, Italian, and Cyprian bees give less trouble to passers-by or to live stock than do the ordinary brown or German bees, or hybrids of these races, yet whatever race be kept, it is best to have the apiary as secluded as the necessary or desirable conditions will permit. The frontispiece and figures 20, 21, and 75, taken from photographs of apiaries located in different parts of the country, give a fair idea of sites actually occupied and the arrangement of hive-. [Illustration: Fig. 21.--An apiary in California. (Reproduced from photograph.)] CHAPTER V. =HIVES AND IMPLEMENTS.=