THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



my plans for meeting them. For the last 

 three seasons my honey crop hardly paid 

 expenses, and having no proof that we might 

 not have more singular seasons, I fully real- 

 ized that there was need of changing old 

 time methods, if we were to make bee keep- 

 ing pay in these changed conditions. You 

 may remember that in my article on "Feed- 

 ing and Feeders" in the September Review 

 I said, " big swarms, so heavy with natural 

 stores that they would need no tinkering in 

 the spring other than to cover them warmly 

 on top and then leave them severely alone, 

 was the gospel that would control the Forest- 

 ville apiary in the future." I had a few 

 such swarms this last season, and if all my 

 colonies had been like those I would have 

 made a handsome profit with my apiary, 

 even this poorest of years. One of the poor- 

 est paying practices I can remember in the 

 past was that of fooling away time trying to 

 doctor up weak swarms. If we must have 

 big swarms at the time of the main honey 

 flow, how can we best get them ? I say by 

 having them strong at all times. And I am 

 fully convinced that the house-apiary is just 

 the place to accomplish this end with cer- 

 tainty, and with less cost than in any way. 

 I firmly believe that the house-apiary is to be 

 the " Mecca " in the new dispensation in bee 

 keeping. And you, Mr. Editor, if you live 

 so as to keep a firm hold upon life, will live 

 to see most of the bees kept in that way. If 

 I had in my pocket the $300 that I have 

 invested in my wintering cellar, the cellar 

 would never be made; but, instead, I would 

 invest the money in a house apiary in which 

 the bees would be kept the year through. 



I have been in the past, and am still, a 

 firm believer in cellar-wintering as com- 

 pared with old ways of out-door wintering, 

 but I am now convinced that bees wintered 

 in a proper way in a house-apiary will come 

 out healthier and breed up better than whore 

 cellar wintered. Dr. Miller, in an article in 

 the A. B. J. of Nov. 24th, on cellar winter- 

 ing, says : 



" I feel a good deal like saying I'll not fuss 

 any again with out-door wintering ; and still 

 I can't get rid of the feeling that I'd like to 

 succeed in it. I have done so, to a degree, 

 by using proper protection, but on the 

 whole I have done best by wintering bees in 

 the cellar. The reason that I'd like to win- 

 ter bees out-doors is, that I have just a little 

 notion that when bees winter out in the pure 

 air they are in a little better condition to 

 commence work in the spring. Still, if they 

 have good air in the cellar, I don'l see why 

 they ought not to do just as well there. But 



just there is the rub. Have they as good air 

 in the cellar?" 



Two extensive bee keepers in Minnesota, 

 Mr. Aldrich and Mr. Thielman, told me that 

 a lamp would immediately go out if carried 

 into their wintering cellars last winter. In 

 my own cellar a lamp will burn as brightly 

 as in a well ventilated sitting room, and yet 

 I do not believe that the bees are as healthy 

 wintered in it as those in the house-apiary, 

 where they are surrounded with thick walls 

 of sawdust, and will not be aroused unless 

 there is a real warm, nice day. But when 

 such a day comes they take a good, joyful 

 play. There has been one such day here 

 already this winter, Nov. 20, and they 

 swarmed out of the house in the most joyful 

 mood. There will be several such days be- 

 fore next April. Where is the intelligent bee 

 keeper who will attempt to prove that such 

 occasional flights are not more likely to be 

 favorable to health than to be confined four 

 or five months without exercise ? So well 

 am I convinced of the value of house-apiaries 

 that I am building a new one, and about the 

 first of March I shall move the required 

 number of good colonies from the cellar 

 into it. pack them warmly with dry sawdust, 

 and with a new feeder which I have made 

 from empty oyster cans packed in the saw- 

 dust on top of each hive, in which the bees 

 can get the syrup without leaving the cluster, 

 and with which I can feed the whole sixteen 

 colonies in five minutes if feeding is neces- 

 sary in the spring and keep the bees booming 

 even if the spring proves as bad as the last 

 one. 



And let me say here that the house-apiary 

 is the safest, handiest, and most profitable 

 place in which to feed that I ever tried. My 

 new house is sixteen feet long and eight feet 

 wide and seven and one-half feet high, and 

 when filled will hold thirty-two swarms, six- 

 teen on the south-west aide and the same on 

 the north-east side — (the building will stand 

 south-east by north-west)— the lower tier of 

 hives will be six inches from the floor and 

 the upper tier midway between that and the 

 roof. The entrances will be just like those 

 in my other twelve-colony house that has 

 been described in the Review. The roof 

 will project over the sides two and one-half 

 feet, like a railroad depot roof, so that the 

 entrances will be protected from rain and 

 snow. The door is in the west end and 

 there is a large sliding window in the center 

 of the east end with revolving wire screen on 

 the Qutside and a ghutter hung from above 



