APRIL 1, 1913 



217 



IIunej-hou!=e and Bee-(.ellar oT 'SI. C. Silslee, Hubkiuville, N. Y. 



quate returus, the latter system niiglit com- 

 mend itself to me. 

 Brantford, Canada. 



A CONVENIENT EXTRACTING - HOUSE AND 

 BEE-CELLAR 



BY MYRON C. SILSBEE 



I am sending you a picture of my bee- 

 cellar and honey-house which was built in 

 the summer and fall of 1911. The building 

 is 24x40 feet north and south, having a 

 cellar of the same dimensions. A partition 

 runs through and shuts oti' the cellar from 

 the tank-room. The cellar is 24 x 30, and 

 the tank-room 24x12. I have a room above, 

 24 X 30 feet, which I use for an extracting 

 and storeroom. I also crate and clean my 

 comb honey for market here. The room is 

 ceiled overhead with matched lumber. I 

 have a power extracting outfit, and pipe 

 through the floor. The pipe is three inches 

 in diameter. It conveys the honey to the 

 tanks in the tank-room below, which hold 

 about 4500 pounds each. 



There is a door in the north end of the 

 bee-house, 7 ft. liigh by 31/2 wide, through 

 which I carry the honey in from the hive. 

 The door in the southeast corner of the 

 tank-room is 4 ft. wide, through which I 

 carry my bees into the cellar and then 

 through a door 31/2 ft. wide through the 

 partition into the bee-cellar. 



Then I have a room in the south end of bee 

 house, 24 x 10, where I have a stove and 

 workbench where I extract wax and nail up 

 hives and supplies. There is a double floor 

 of hard pine with building paper between. 

 I have four trapdoors in the floor, 14 x 21 

 inches, for veu^ilating the cellar. 



The cellar has a cement floor, and is seal- 

 ed overhead with matched lumber. The 

 walls under the building are laid up in 

 Portland cement mixed 5 to 1. The walls 

 are 3 feet thick at the bottom and 18 inches 

 at the top. I cover the cellar floor with 

 two or three inches of planer shavings. 

 The bees are set on plank 6 inches from the 

 floor with bottom-boards removed to allow 

 all dead bees to drop out during the winter. 

 I generally put the bees in the cellar from 

 the 10th to the loth of November, and set 

 them out about April 1. The outside of my 

 bee-house is sheeted with one-inch planed 

 hemlock, shiplap, covered with building 

 paper, then sided over. 



The chimney on the bee-house is built of 

 cement. Then I have a building at the 

 northwest corner of the bee-house, which 

 does not show in the picture. It is 12 x 15 

 feet. I have a gasohne-engine, saws, and 

 dovetail cutter, where I saw my hives and 

 supplies; but I would not advise any one 

 to make his own hives and supplies. 



I intend to lay up the brace-walls on the 

 east side of my bee-house, and grade up 



