GXEANINGS IN BEE CTTLTJIRE. 



keep the whole inside of the room warm in 

 winter by retaining the animal heat from so 

 many colonies, so closely packed. For en- 

 trance passages, we will use round hollow 

 sticks — with a tAVo inch l>ore, say — and these 

 vrill reach through our jjacked wall, and be so 

 arranged that all may be opened or closed by 

 a single lever. The middle one of each three 

 hives will hSive the entrance in the centre, the 

 two outside ones in the outer corners ; this 

 gives us entrances about two feet apart, and 

 only three in a row, at that. We think all ex- 

 perienced bee-keepers will agree that there 

 would be little danger of mixing with our 48 

 colonies ai'ranged as above. 



Now, our underground arrangement of last 

 winter showed that it not only kept the hives 

 above freezing in cold weather, but that it also 

 kept them below a brood-raising temperature 

 in warm weather, and to avoid this we will 

 have large doors on both the east and west 

 sides, to be left open whenever we wish the 

 interior to become quickly warmed up to the 

 temperature of the outside air ; our thin v>'all- 

 ed hives facilitating this, you will bear in 

 mind. Again, during the spring months, the 

 air is often quite warm in the middle of the 

 day ; this we will take advantage of by open- 

 ing the doors, and then closing them early in 

 the afternoon until the next day, etc. Who 

 has not felt surprise, on going into his bee 

 house some cool morning, to tind it almost as 

 warm as the air had been the previous day 

 when it had been closed all night V To give 

 the bees, in winter, about the same benefit of 

 the sun's rays as they would get when kept 

 out of doors, we will have several double 

 windows, where they will be conveniently out 

 of the way, for we need take no pains to keep 

 this room dark, as no bees are ever allowed to 

 get into the room, unless it l)e while extract- 

 ing, and then our large doors are both open. 

 To facilitate a free circulation of air all around 

 our thin hives, we would raise the bottom tier 

 from the lloor about three inches, and to pre- 

 vent bees from getting under them, and into 

 the triangalar spaces at the corners of the 

 room when extracting, we would close these 

 spaces with wire cloth. When we wish to 

 extract, we would lift out enough fnvmes from 

 our 20 comb liive, to allow a place to shake 

 and l)rush all the young bees into the bottom 

 of the hives — the older ones being allowed 

 to fly out at tlie door — and should any fail of 

 getting in, they would lie pretty sure to be on 

 the covers of the adjoining hives or wire 

 cloth, from which they could easily be lirushed 

 into the hive where they belong. You will 

 see that the whole business of extracting is 

 simply removing the combs, and passing them 

 to your assistant, who stands at all times with 

 the extractor right at your side. Each one of 

 the features of the above arrangement we 

 have tested, or seen tested, separately ; and 

 the dihiculties that are to be surmounted when 

 all arc combined, we shall ti-y to overcome in a 

 house that we are just about putting up. 



Jnae 28</t — The glass house is all removed, 

 and in its stead we now have the Octagon 

 house. It is a two story building that was 

 originally made to grind grain in, with the 

 wind-mill for a motive power. The juveniles 

 of our family, after holding conclave, began 



making very anxious inquiries in regard to- 

 what use papa was going to make of the upper 

 story ; and on l>eing told that it was of no 

 especial use except as a dead air space in win- 

 ter, l^egged it for a play room ; when the ob- 

 jection was raised that the stairs were to be 

 taken down. Master Ernest volunteei*ed to 

 make a suspension stairway from the top of 

 the north fence to one of the windows, and he 

 is now planning this structure, with side rails^ 

 of course, for the accomodation of Blue Eyes. 

 Our caqjenter is nov/ engaged in making the 

 hatchway for rolling out the barrels of honey- 

 when filled, and ere we pay you another visit 

 we expect to have it stocked with bees, and to 

 be able to reiwrt how it works on basswood' 

 honey. 



P. S. — There are two or three things about 

 the house Apiary that we are never going to 

 tell auylx)dy of, and one is about having the- 

 whole inside case containing the hives, made- 

 to revolve on a pivot, with a wire cloth bot- 

 tom to each hive, and tin pipes converging to 

 the hopper in the center; and when the SO* 

 comb hives are all full of honey, we will hitch 



on the now if we should tell wdiat, you 



would some of you may l)e get it patent- 

 ed, so we will just bid you adieu, without an- 

 other word about our new Air Castles. 



I've given up farming, and liung all my portion on 

 bees, and crave a (;alm time, as I'm a young sailor on 

 tlie Honey Sea. More an<l more I'm convinced of the 

 superiority of the Italians, I've S stocks of black 

 bees away from home not yet Italianized. The 8 gave 

 2)4 gal., and stung evei'ybddy about the Apiary -while 

 extracting; while the Italians by their side gave 

 nearly 2 gallons each, and only one" sting in four days. 

 I can't learn to like your metal corners for top bars^ 

 they hurt my lingers Avhen I sliake off bees. Have 

 also discarded metal clasps for transferring combs^ 

 and use thin strips tacked across the frames length- 

 wise, and can then (ill the frame with scraps of comb 

 like brick work. Have made some honey bo.xes ol 

 1/^ inch wide cypress- lath strips, boxes 5 inehes high. 

 (J wide, outside measure; eleven sections to a box. 

 with stri)) tacked on the side to hold all sections to- 

 gether. The ends left open for bees to work through. 

 Four boxes All a simplicity hive ; can stop the ends 

 wlien taken out. I much regret ciUting entrances in 

 the liive instead of the bottom board, as I dibcover 

 that there is a great difterence in extracting, for I (;an 

 then lift oil" all the bees and set the empty box on the 

 stand and shake the bees into it, so as never to have 

 the same bees to shake ofl" more than once. Success 

 to the wind mill. W. F. St.vni>kkek, Dry Grove, Miss. 

 The corners you used were probably made 

 wi,th our first set of dies, and were rough and 

 sharp ; by grasping the frame by the part 

 Avhere the tin is united to the wood, you can 

 avoid this trouble. If you have the amount of 

 propolis we do, you certainly will not wish to 

 go back to prying frames loose. Use the strips, 

 of course, when fastening many litth^ bits into 

 frames, but most box hives will furnish con)bs 

 that the clasps will hold perfectly well. We 

 have practiced lifting the hive ott" the stand, 

 and putting the combs into a new one as fast 

 as extracted, but rather prefer lifting all the 

 combs out of f he hive before shaking off any 

 bees, and then i»utting them back only as fast 

 as extracted. Mr. Dean has a rack to hold the 

 combs, made of very thin, light jiine, and sup- 

 ported on legs that Ining it up high enough to 

 avoid stooping. At lirst the bees are brushed 

 ott' hastily, then in the extracting room the 

 young bees are every one brushed back into 

 the box, and when the extracted combs are 

 ready to carry back»t,o the hive, these young 

 bees are all found clustered on them. 



