Vo!. XT. 



JULY 15, 1887. 



No. 14. 



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PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLT BY 



L I. ROOT, MEDINA. OHIO. 



A HOUSE FOR THE APIARY. 



VltOF. COOK GIVES US HIS IDEAS ON THE SUBJECT. 



K. ROOT:— I have been giving' much thoug'ht 

 of liite to the plan for an ideal house for the 

 apiary. You will remember we talked of it 

 while you were here. 1 have also conferred 

 with such authorities as Messrs. Hutchinson, 

 Doolittle, Dr. Miller, Heddon, etc. It seems to me 

 that this is a question of exceeding importance, and 

 I wish to submit my drawings and reasons for this 

 plan for criticisms, that we may secure the very 

 best. The house is three stories— a cellar 7 ft. high; 

 first tloor 8 ft., and chamber 6 ft. at the lowest part. 

 The cellar is for wintering bees: the rooms above 

 are for honey, extracting, and shop; the chamber is 

 for storage. The cellar has two rooms. One, for 

 bees in winter, is 18 x 34 ft. This is entirely under 

 ground, with a good stone wall, grouted below and 

 plastered above, with a double floor grouted be- 

 tween — to secure against mice and cold alike, and 

 with the partition wall double, with double doors. 

 At the center of the partition wall a small chimney 

 runs from the bottom of the cellar up to and through 

 the roof. Just within the wall of this room is a 

 einall gutter which e.xtends nearly around the room, 

 as seen in the drawing, from one end of a cistern to 

 the underground sub-earth ventilation-pipe which 

 runs 2110 feet or more underground. Thus this pipe 

 of four-inch glazed tile serves for sub-earth ventila- 

 tion, overfiow-pipe for a cellar cistern, and it can be 

 made to empty the cistern and cool the bee-cellar at 

 any time, the water passing through the small 

 gutter. 



In the other room of the cellar, which is s x -24 ft.. 

 there is a cistern 8 X 14 ft., and ."> ft. high. As will 

 be seen, this extends 2 ft. into the bee-cellar, yet the 



partition is tight, except a small hole ,iust at the 

 bottom, so we may say we have two cisterns— one a 

 small one in the bee-cellar, the other a large one in 

 the other cellar, though they are connected at the 

 bottom. The other room, which is a sort of vesti- 

 bule for the bee-cellar, has two windows— one (1 X 2) 

 by 2 ft., and stairs to the room above, which are cov- 

 ered by double trap-doors. This room is entirely 

 under ground, though the outer double door, which 

 is 4 ft. wide, is, because of a natural slope of the 

 ground, on a level with the outside, or else is inclin- 

 ed so we can easily run a wheelbarrow into the cel- 

 lar. The windows may receive light by a half-cir- 

 cular excavation, or, if desired, may be above the 

 earth at this south-east corner of the house. 



Here, then, we have an arrangement by which wo 

 can control the temperature perfectly, from Octo- 

 ber to May; and from an experience extending now 

 over eight years, I am sure that, with enough good 

 food, bees are entirely safe in such a cellar. By aid 

 of the cistern there is no occasion to use ice to re- 

 duce the temperature in spring; and we can, by aid 

 of sub-earth ventilation and cistern water, keep the 

 temperature .iust to our liking all through the win- 

 ter, with almost no trouble and at no expense. This 

 is no theory: it is demonstrated fact. As the bees 

 can be wheeled into the cellar, their removal to or 

 from the cellar is a very light task. 



On the ground tloor, which is on a level with the 

 earth outside, there are three rooms. One on the 

 south-west, 12 X 1.5 ft., is for extracting and extract- 

 ed honey. It has a hard-wood floor, wide outer 

 door, and only one thickness of wall, so that in sum- 

 mer it is kept very warm, and so enables us to ripen 

 honey without leaving It in the hive till it is all 

 capped. This is also a demonstrated fact. The 

 joists above are .just so wide that they serve as 



