24 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



EXTRACTED. 



BUILDINGS IN THE APIARY. 



The Necessity of Rooms for Storage and in 

 Which to Work. 



Too many bee-keepers do not look up- 

 on their business as a business. They 

 put up with make-shifts that would dis- 

 gust evtu an ordinary farmer; let alone 

 one that is up-to-date. This is particu- 

 larly true in regard to buildings. But I 

 won't steal all of the thunder of my 

 friend Harry Lathrop of Wisconsin, whose 

 article on this subject I copy from the 

 Wisconsin Agriculturist. 



Many bee-keepers have been trying to 

 get along with little or no outlay for 

 buildings, while in other branches of 

 farming thev do not think of doing so. 

 A man will build a one-hundred-tloUar 

 barn for the purpose of housing one cow 

 and the necessary food. The cow will 

 bring him an income above expenses of, 

 perhaps, fifty dollars per year. A small 

 apiary of forty or fifty colonies of bees 

 that bring a nuich larger income are not 

 provided with any special buildings, but 

 instead, bee supplies, extra hivt-s, combs, 

 and honey are piled around here and 

 there. In the kitchen, the woodshed, on 

 the porch, and worse than all, out in the 

 vard, exposed to all kinds of weather. 

 The result is a whole lot of inconvenience 

 and more or less loss and damage. 



Every apiary of any size above a very 

 few colonies should 'have adjoining it a 

 building proportionate in size to the num- 

 ber of colonies kept. There should be 

 three rooms or compartments. One for a 

 general work-shop, where hives and fix- 

 tures could be made or repaired; another 

 for the storage of honey, and one which 

 may be simplv a shed for the storage of 

 hives, lumber and all the various odds 

 and ends that will accumulate around an 

 apiary. But I would advise having the 

 whole under one roof. The honey room 

 must be sealed and arranged .so it can be 

 shut up tight in order to facilitate the 

 fumigating of honey or extra combs with 

 sulphur when necessary to destroy the 

 wax niolh. The shop may be made to 

 serve the double purpose of work-shop 

 and lumber room, but if one wishes to do 

 work in cold weather it must be made 



warm and provided with a stove. The 

 stove must be of such size and shape that 

 it could be used for the purpose of lique- 

 fying honey, rendering out beeswax, etc. 

 I have been getting along without prop- 

 er buildings. One of my apiaries is sit- 

 uated on land that I do not own, and for 

 that reason I tried to get along with a 

 small temporary structure, but after long 

 experience 1 am convinced that we lose 

 by not providing ourselves with the pro- 

 per facilities in the way of buildings. If 

 the placing of temporary outwards is prac- 

 ticed, we need a good building at the 

 home-yard, or headquarters, where every 

 thing can lie prepared ready for hauling 

 to the out yard and where the honey and 

 fixtures can be properly stored when 

 brought in. If one does not wish to erect 

 even a temporary shant^v at an out-yard a 

 small tent may be made to do duty as an 

 extracting room, but if the yard is to be 

 located for a term of two or three years 

 at the same place, I would i)refer a tem- 

 porary building. 



I have said nolhing about constinclion. 

 Manv plans have been given in the bee- 

 journals. It is esseiUi.il that we get the 

 building large enough for our needs. It 

 should have a stone foundation and a 

 floor well supported to sustain a heavv 

 weight. I would make the outside wall 

 of drop siding and ceil with matched 

 flooring. The rooms should be provided 

 with bee escapes at the windows to let 

 out any bees that were brought in with 

 the honev. 



At the home of the late B. Taylor of 

 Fore.stville, Minn., I saw a honey-house 

 made entirely of iron. This made an 

 excellent place to store honev but is more 

 expensive. I think my bee-keeping read- 

 ers will all agree with me that we could 

 do our work much better and with much 

 more ease and comfort to ourselves if we 

 were adeqnatelv provided with neat and 

 suitable shop-room. I. for one, shall 

 build such in the near future— if I con- 

 tinue in the bee business, which I think 

 will be the case. 



"LOCALITY." 



And a Beautiful Pastoral in Prose and 

 Picture. 



When it comes to the use of elegant, 

 beautiful language, none of us bee-keep- 

 ing editors can su-pass Bro. Hill of the 

 American Bee-Keeper; and in the Decem- 

 ber issue he fairly outdid himself by strik- 



