80 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



less resistance in a building tlian out- 

 side. When the bees fly out, the sur- 

 roundings are unfamiliar to them and 

 they lose the desire to sting. Stritt- 

 matter cuts a small corner of each 

 window-pane in each of the four corn- 

 ers of the sash, to permit the bees 

 to escape. 



Another important advantage is the 

 control of swarming, which is a very 

 simple matter under these conditions. 

 Some years there have been no 

 swarms in the Strittmatter house 

 apiaries, as all that seems to be nec- 

 -essary to control swarming entirely 

 is to give the bees plenty of room, and 

 retain young queens. 



In the same report from which the 

 quotation from Langstroth above men- 

 tioned is taken appears the following: 



"Mr. Sturtevant uses a large bee- 

 house but does not allow the bees in 

 it to swarm, but always divides his 

 swarms, taking the queenless swarm 

 away from the apiary, and if desirable 

 returning it to the house after the 

 queen is fecundated. « * * Hives 

 must not be placed on a common 

 level, where they can run from one 

 to another. His bees had laid up an 

 immense quantity of honey the last 

 season; the house is airy and cool, 

 built of brick. Hives should face in 

 different directions." 



Strittmatter tries to have young 



that the colony is in proper condi- 

 tion for winter and to put the cover 

 in place and throw the quilts or other 

 top packing over the tops of the hives. 

 The cost of winter cases and the labor 

 of annual packing is saved by this 

 plan. 



Rainy days are no hindrance to 

 work, as it is possible to remove the 

 honey inside a house apiary with a 

 minimum of discomfort at any time 



HOUSE APIARIES OF OTHER DAYS. 



After paying a visit to Mr. Stritt- 

 matter and seeing how enthusiastic 

 he is over the house apiary after 

 seven years of trial, I have been 

 much at a loss to determine why they 

 are not more generally used. Many 

 well known beekeepers tried them in 

 the early nineties and the journals 

 for several years were full of en- 

 thusiastic accounts of successfully 

 conducted house apiaries. In this 

 connection a review of the principal 

 suggestions of a few of these articles 

 may be of interest. In the Beekeep- 

 ers' Review for September 1892 an 

 article by E. R. Jaques describes the 

 B. Taylor house apiaries at Forest- 

 ville, Minn. From this article I quote 

 as follows: 



"The first point scored by the 

 house bees over those in the yard was 

 this — they built up faster in early 



INTERIOR OF HOUSE APIARY SHOWING BUILT-IN HIVES WITH SUPERS 



queens mated from the corner hives 

 and reports that he has little more 

 trouble from the loss of young queens 

 in the building than in the hives out- 

 side. He has the fronts of the hives 

 painted four different colors, which 

 helps materially to keep the bees 

 from mixing or the queens from go- 

 ing astray. 



Another advantage is the protection 

 against changing weather conditions 

 of spring, and, in wintering. The 

 brood chambers are built in with 

 four inches of sawdust packing sur- 

 rounding each hive. This additional 

 protection enables the bees to build 

 up rapidly in spring, as there is no 

 danger of chilled brood because of a 

 sudden drop in temperature outside. 

 The winter preparation, also, is but a 

 matter of a few minutes. When the 

 honey is taken from the hive in the 

 fall all that is necessary is to see 



spring thus becoming strong in num- 

 bers in time for the clover har- 

 vest. * * * 



"It is much more comfortable in the 

 house, out of the hot sun with all 

 your supers, honey-boards, bee escapes 

 and the like on shelves in easy reach. 

 Then, too, you will not be troubled as 

 much with robbers and will have 

 little use for smoke and veil; for 

 however cross a bee may be out-of- 

 doors she becomes a lady in the 

 house. * * * 



"On the other hand I think the house 

 queens will be much more apt to get 

 lost on their mating trips. * * * 

 The lifting of hives and supers will 

 be found heavier work in than out of 

 the house. 



"Now for results in honey gathered 

 to date (July 24th). Twenty colonies 

 in the house have 100 pounds each of 

 comb-honey in the supers, while 

 twenty of the best colonies in the 

 yard have stored but 75 pounds each. 



"I think the house apiary has come 

 to stay but do not believe it will be 

 a success except in the hands of a 

 skilled apiarist." 



During the year 1891 the Review 

 contained several articles on house 

 apiaries and nearly all reporting 

 favored their use. In the July issue, 

 J. P. Moore, of Binghampton, N. Y., 

 reported having used one for 19 years. 

 Mr. Moore described the house some- 

 what in detail and gave rather flat- 

 tering accounts of its advantages. 

 One item is of especial interest: 



"In spring as soon as the bees be- 

 gin to raise brood, the temperature of 

 the house rises and it is readily seen 

 that many weak stocks that would be 

 of no value outside are enabled to 

 breed up, on account of the tempera- 

 ture maintained by the other bees. 



Not all reports were favorable, how- 

 ever, as witness the following from 

 J. B. Hains of Bedford, Ohio: 



"At the outset I desire to say that 

 I regard the house apiary as worse 

 than useless and a very expensive 

 establishment to keep up. * * * In 

 the year 1879 I erected a house apiaryt 

 fitted it up in the most modern style, 

 put in 48 colonies of bees which 

 wintered fairly well but dwindled so 

 in the spring, especially on the north 

 side, that I was compelled to draw on 

 the yard apiary to make them good. 



STRITTMATTER'S CARROLLTOWN HOUSE APIARY 



