_><; 



NOVICE'S" (iLHAiUNUS iN B4IM CtfLTt.Ki!. 



merrier,) and bring nil the dust pans and 

 tiro shovel! 3 , earls, wheelbarrows, etc., and 

 proceed to lny out the walks of our city; 

 for we shall expect yon to go around 

 «mon<; your hives all kinds of weather, and 

 without getting your foot muddy to be 

 Cracked indoors either. 



If your supply of sawdust rs limited 

 Hiake narrow paths with it, midway be- 

 tween the stakes in the three different di- 

 rections in which our lanes run. We sin- 

 cerely hope that the wives, mothers and 

 •laughters of your household are partners 

 in this enterprise, because they will assist 

 SO much, in keeping it neat and tidy, and 

 when they once become interested in its 

 growth and development, (for it may com- 

 mence with only half a dozen hives, three, 

 two or even one only,) we are sure it will 

 succeed. 



Wo think it will pay to build a Bee or 

 Honey house when you have a dozen colo- 

 nies, and the rail road when that number is 

 doubled. The building is 10^x12 feet, out- 

 side measure, and as the walls are one foot 

 thick, packed with sawdust, the inside is 

 one foot less eneh way and eight feet from 

 lloor to ceiling. The floor is elevated ten 

 inches from the ground and is also packed 

 with sawdust and the building is supported 

 on a good stone or brick wall laid with mor- 

 tar. 



The whole of the timber used is 2x12 

 inch joists sided up on the outside and 

 made tight (so that no sawdust can sift 

 through into our honey,) by matched lum- 

 ber on the inside. 



As with our hives, any lumber will an- 

 swer that contains no loose knot.s. Tight 

 fitting, double doors are used, and the 

 inner ones are so hinged that they can be 

 slipped off and deposited in the loft out of 

 the way in summer time when the building 

 is used as a honey house ; the outer doors 

 whould each have a window sash in them 

 covered with wire cloth externally, and 

 these sashes should be allowed also lo slide 

 down in hot weather, leaving the wire cloth 

 to keep bees out ; also have the doors ar- 

 ranged to fasten open as well as shut. 



In the center of the floor an opening one 

 foot square is made through both floors for 

 ventilation, and also one of the same .size 

 In the ceiling above, reaching into the open 

 (sir, but so arranged that no ray of light 

 can enter; both of these openings should 

 he painted black inside, and the lower 

 one should have a nicely fitting trap door 

 which may be opened more or less accord- 

 ing to the number of colonies the room 

 contains, or the severity of the weather. 

 Tor wintering, six shelves, each twenty 

 inches broad, are placed at equal distances 

 on each side of the room, three inches 

 from the wall : the hives arc placed on 

 those without top or bottom, anil the frames 

 covered with the cloth quilt only. The 

 shelves are removnble and are stored in 

 the loft in summer except a part of one of 

 them on the south side, which is a fixture 

 and contains shallow drawers. 



Remember that neither the house nor 



apiary is ever to bo lumbered up with use- 

 less traps, oven if they have to be burned 

 up periodically, and so we make no pro- 

 vision for storing them. 



The house as described is sufficiently 

 largo for storing one hundred colonies in 

 winter, (if they are in the dollar hive,) and 

 will admit of all necessary operations in 

 summer, unless we should bo .so unfortu- 

 nate as to get a barrel of honey from each 

 colony, and even then it. might be carted 

 away every night. 



Our railroad is simply a track made of 

 pieces of scantling 2x3 inches with boards 

 nailed across on the under side, and the 

 car is a shallow dry goods box, bottom up, 

 with a post nailed in each corner; these 

 posts have mortises in their lower ends to 

 slip over two axles of one inch round iron, 

 having cast iron truck wheels fastened sta- 

 tionarily to their outer ends. 



The top of the car is 2ix*l feet and rais- 

 ed enough to be level with the floor of the 

 house ; the other end of the track is such 

 that the platform of the car is about level 

 with the bottom of a lumber wagon ; thus, 

 hives, honey, sugar, etc., may be quietly 

 and speedily conveyed to or from the 

 building. 



"Presiding Genius, ' says a collision is 

 sure to result between the car and and the 

 hive near it, with the curved track we 

 have made in the drawing, but as we can- 

 not consent to mar the symmetry of our 

 "honey comb' apiary by removing the hive 

 a little, the whole thing has gone to press as 



it is. 



_ m ^ * 



ITALIAN <|t i;i:\*i FOR TWEXTY- 

 FlYE CENTS. 



" fX" ^^ readers, Novice hasn't gone wild 

 ?=*=3 or crazy, nor into a gift enterprise 

 even (which, in our opinion, would be 

 worse), but after having made it plain 

 that the "dollar" hive was feasible, the 

 tact that we must hare Italians occurred 

 to us, and also that many of us have in- 

 vested much money, and, in some cases, 

 with but little profit or satisfaction in re- 

 turn. We, too, have had our share of hu- 

 miliating results in trying to Italianize, 

 and must confess, therefore, that we have 

 a preference for eggs for queen rearing 

 directly from a genuine imported queen, 

 and have no doubt that bee-keepers in gen- 

 eral feel the same way. 



On pages 200 and 210 of the National 

 Bee Journal, "Vol. 11.. we find that eggs 

 can be sent safely by mail. Many thanks 

 to friends Murphy and Marvin for the 

 tacts furnished ; and now we want' the as- 

 sistance of all queen rearers having im- 

 ported queens. We will advertise r/rvti* 

 the names of all responsible persons who 

 will undertake to aid our friends, as fol- 

 lows : 



"On the receipt of 25c. we will mail to 

 any address a piece of comb containing 

 freshly laid eggs from an imported Italian 

 queen.'' 



A piece of comb 2lx'5 inches should 



