THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



on the inside to make all dark if needed. A 

 galvanized iron chimney is in the center of 

 the roof for ventilation, and to set a stove up 

 if one should be needed. The walls are of 

 one thickness of good '^s Pine boards, twelve 

 inches wide, placed up and down, and the 

 cracks nicely battened. The joist overhead 

 is 2xC laid flatwise. There is a floor laid on 

 all this space overhead, except two of the 

 spaces between the joists, which are left 

 open to get things into the loft. 



When I unpack the bees the sawdust will 

 be put into gunny sacks and kept in this dry 

 overhead place until wanted again, when the 

 sacks can be easily taken down and the con- 

 tents poured over the hives. A movable 

 table 23^x5 feet will occupy the space be- 

 tween the hive stands to work on when 

 handling the bees. The space under the 

 lower hive stands is packed with ten inches 

 of pine leaves. On the upper shelf the hives 

 have a shallow box four inches deep and one 

 inch less than the bottom board under each 

 hive, and in packing this will be filled with 

 sawdust to protect the bottoms of the hives 

 from cold. The building will be nicely 

 painted and cost $50. 



I shall manage this house about as follows: 

 Twenty-four swarms will be packed in the 

 spring, the two south stands and lower north 

 one being occupied. The north upper stand 

 will be left vacant. If the bees swarm from 

 any of the hives the swarm will be hived in 

 an empty hive, the parent hive moved to one 

 of the vacant stands and the new one set in 

 its place; the next one that swarms will be 

 treated in the same way except that the 

 parent hive will be set on top of parent hive 

 No. 1, a queen excluding honey board be- 

 ing placed on top of it, hive No. 1 being 

 first given a laying queen. These two hives 

 will soon make a strong colony. All queen 

 cells will be destroyed in the upper hive and 

 as the young bees hatch out the top set of 

 combs will be left to be filled with honey to 

 give to light colonies in the fall, or for ex- 

 tracting, if not required. Others, as they 

 swarm, will be treated in the same way. I 

 will run a few of the swarms for extracting, 

 probably all of the eight colonies on the 

 north side. I will give them all the empty 

 combs they can till, and prevent swarming 

 if possible. 



Part of the colonies that swarm will have 

 the bees returned and the profits of the dif- 

 ferent methods tested; in fact, this house 

 will be run for experimental purposes, to 



find the best method of management; for, 

 mind you, in house apiaries all the work of 

 caring for these bees will be done inside the 

 walls. No lugging heavy hives, no hot sun 

 or wet grass, no carrying into cellar in the 

 fall and out in the spring and what a splen- 

 did thing for out-aparies; just think of from 

 six to thirty-two-colony houses or larger ones 

 in as many good locations, all safely packed 

 against intruders, the hives always on their 

 summer stands, always in their winter 

 quarters, where you can feed at any time of 

 the year without opening a hive or disturb- 

 ing a bee, or the least danger of robbing, 

 and where the most vicious hybrids will 

 make no attempt to sting. No shade boards 

 needed, no caps or covers to lift, no leaky 

 hive covers, and all at less cost than the 

 same number of colonies can be started in 

 open yards when everything is counted. 



Again you say in your leader "it is mostly 

 in the devising of plans, methods, hives, ap- 

 pliances, etc., whereby the labor of raising 

 honey may be lessened that bee-keepers 

 must look at present for their success. 



I am confident that I can equip a house 

 apiary of one hundred colonies in first class 

 fashion, for f 200, this sum to include house, 

 hives, supers, honey boards, bee escapes, 

 swarm catchers; in fact everything except 

 the bees. This is cheaper than you can equip 

 an out door yard for wintering, cellar and 

 all other neccessary expenses counted. All 

 the hives, supers, and, in fact, everything in 

 the line of supplies for the house, may be 

 made nearly one-half cheaper than for out 

 side yards. I want to mention right here 

 one of the splendid things connected with 

 the house. You can just open your hives at 

 all times of the day in any part of the honey 

 season, and not a single robber there to 

 bother you. So gratifying is this fact that I 

 would adopt the house apiary for the pleas- 

 ure and profit of this one point alone. 



Again you say in your leader " let each in 

 his mind go over the bee-keeping of the 

 past, see how it has progressed first in this 

 direction then in that, met this obstacle then 

 that, then consider the bee-keeping of the 

 present, its needs and necessities, then try 

 and give the best advice possible to give in a 

 single article as to the course that bee-keep- 

 ers ought to pursue in the future to make 

 their pursuit more pleasant and profitable." 



Well, Mr. Editor, the ideas embodied in 

 the above quotation from your leader are the 

 very ones that I am expecting to materialize 



