THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



23 



tank located in the cellar. The yard- 

 square hole left in the floor upon re- 

 moval of the shaft, may be closed with a 

 trap door fitted into the opening, and, 

 through this door should be an opening 

 large enough to allow the honey to drop 

 down into the cellar. In some honey 

 houses, the floor is made on two levels. 

 Perhaps one-third or one-fourth of the 

 floor is made three or four feet Icwer 

 than the rest of the floor. This difference 

 in the levels allows the drop to be used 

 in straining and canning the honey. On 

 a side hill this arrangement can easily be 

 made; but where there is a cellar under 

 the honey house the honey can be 

 strained and put into cans in the cellar. 

 When extracting / would not strain the 

 honey; simply run it into a large tank, 

 and allow it to stand a day or two, when 

 all particles of wax or other foreign sub- 

 stances will have raised to the surface of 

 the honey and may be skimmed off. This is 

 really straining honey by "gravity." This 

 plan also insures a more uniform grade of 

 honey. For instance, one year, at one 

 of our yards there was just a little dash 

 of basswood gathered. Once in a while 

 some colony secured quite a bit of bass- 

 wood; others did not gather any. The 

 honey from the first mentioned colony 

 would be quite strong with basswood, 

 and, if kept by itself in a can might dis- 

 please some customer. If the honey 

 from 25 or 30 colonies were all run to- 

 gether in a large tank, there would be 

 such a blend that the basswood flavor 

 would never be noticed. Last fall, at one 

 apiary, there was just a little goldenrod 

 honey came in, in the same way. By 

 first storing the honey in a large tank, 

 the goldenrod flavor was all absorbed. 



The joists for supporting the lower 

 floor I would have one foot in width. 

 Besides the regular floor (of matched 

 hard maple) I would have a floor of 

 cheap lumber securely nailed to the 

 lower edges of the joists, and before 

 laying the upper floor I would fill the 

 space between floors with dry sawdust 

 or planer shavings. 



The Department of Agriculture in 

 Ontario, Canada, after exhaustive ex- 

 periments with packing materials for the 

 walls of cold storage buildings, decided 

 that there was no better materials than 

 planer shavings— very much superior to 

 sawdust for insulating purposes. A 

 wooden wall filled with shavings ought 

 to be protected from dampness, by using 

 damp-proof building paper between the 

 two courses of sheathing. 



At the back end of the first story, or 

 main floor, I would have partitioned off' a 

 space of about eight feet for a work shop. 

 I would have a bench three feet wide 

 and eight feet long placed midway 

 against the outside wall, with a long 

 window (long horizontally) just above the 

 bench. I would have it made of two 

 sashes, each of which could be slid back 

 horizontally. If it should be necessary 

 to warm up honey artificially in the fall, 

 for extracting, this room could be used 

 for that purpose. 



If the stairs are placed in one corner 

 of the building they will be the least in 

 the way. 



I would have a sash door in the front 

 of the building. The glass lets in the 

 light, and prevents collisions between 

 two persons who may attempt to go 

 out and in at the same time. Don't use 

 a screen door. The odor of honey comes 

 through it, and attracts a crowd of 

 robber bees that are ready to dodge in 

 the moment the door is opened. 



With the exception of the window over 

 the work bench, I would use the ordinary, 

 two-sash windows, so arranged that the 

 upper sashes can be lowered, or the 

 lower ones raised. Cover the whole 

 outside of each window with a screen of 

 wire cloth, with a bee escape at each 

 upper corner. There may be times when 

 we don't wish to allow the bees to pass 

 out through these escapes, and the 

 escapes can then be stopped up with 

 wads of paper. 



Now, friends, what have 1 left out, and 

 what have I put in that can be bettered? 



