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QEORGB \V. VORK, Editor. 



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40th YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, MAY 3, 1900, 



No, 18. 



House-Apiaries— Their Successful Management. 



BY B. J. CHRYSOSTOM. 



WHEN the reasonable objections have been obviated, 

 and have been substituted by beneficial and substan- 

 tial improvements, then is the house-apiary destined 

 to come rapidly into favor — not only because of the great 

 convenience it affords, but chiefly on account of the bene- 

 ficial results obtained by the saving of money, time and 

 labor, the last mentioned being often attended with consid- 

 erable disagreeable inconvenience. 



I am personally acquainted with only two bee-keepers 

 who wintered their bees in cellars. One of them lost every 

 colony one winter, and the other was so severely stung 

 while removing them to the yard that his life was endan- 

 gered. He is now engaged in other pursuits. These two 

 cases, and the reports appearing from time to time relative 

 to this subject, in periodicals devoted to apiculture and the 

 production of honey, have led me to regard cellar-wintering 

 of bees as a necessary evil consequent on the introduction 

 of the loose-frame hive, which has proven a most destruc- 

 tive invention for bees, especially when it was first intro- 

 duced. Hence, the object of this article is to give some 

 facts and figuresthat perhaps may be of benefit to those who 

 may wish to liave a better and cheaper method than they 

 at present possess. 



Sometimes a small improvement effects a complete 

 change in a whole system. As far as ray experimental 

 work has gone in house-apiaries, it has been most satis- 

 factory, and has given good results with comparatively lit- 

 tle labor and expense. With a suitable house and a perfect 

 hive, the business is simplified and becomes more agreeable 

 and pleasant. 



There is at the University of Notre Dame a bee-house 

 having eight sides — a frame with single walls one inch 

 thick — built without any regard to warmth. It serves its 

 purpose perfectly. It is just large enough to admit three 

 hives to each side, with plenty of room for a low operating 

 or work table in the center, and space on one or two sides 

 for storing away boxes and supplies. It has during six 

 years given entire satisfaction, excepting in one thing, 

 which is that the windows are too small, and are in two 

 sashes. The windows in bee-houses should be large enough 

 to afford plenty of light, and so elevated as to let the light 

 into the hive while operating. It is a great convenience to 

 have the sash all in one piece and hung on four rods, one in 

 each corner, so that it could be easily pusht out enough to 

 let the bees out at the four sides. Bees that leave the hive 

 or the combs while being handled, will settle on the glass 

 aud give no further trouble. When the work is finisht in 

 one hive the window may be opened and the bees all disap- 



pear instantly. So far as is known not one queen has been 

 lost by entering other than her own hive. As the bees of 

 every three hives fly in from different points of the com- 

 pass, they are not liable to mistake their respective hives. 



The cost of such houses is so small, and their construc- 

 tion so simple, that it requires but little skill to build them. 

 Any one that can build or put up a board fence might suc- 

 ceed in a building of this kind. Hives kept all the time 

 in the dry will last more than a lifetime. There is no warp- 

 ing of hives and covers ; in fact, the covers can be dispenst 

 with and substituted with a strip of burlap and a mat of 

 some kind to retain the heat of the bees. This in the hot 

 season may also be laid aside. I simply mention these 

 small matters, not altogether for their recommendation, but 

 chiefly as hints, which, after mature deliberation, the reader 

 may or may not think fit to adopt — for what may succeed 

 well with one may not do so well with another. After all, 

 technicalities are not so important. Principles are more to 

 be taken account of in questions of house-apiaries and 

 hives. Is it not better for hives and bees to be kept at all 



A View of a Portion of the House-Apiary. 



