SOUTHERN BEE CULTURE 87 



more bees, a small house 6x8 feet will be large enough to keep honey 

 and supplies, and to set them up in, and everything used in bee-keeping can 

 be kept in there out of the way, and safe. Of course, if the apiary is 

 a large one the h6ney-house should be larger; and if out-apiaries were 

 established the honey-house should be still large at the home apiary, so that 

 the honey from out-apiaries could be stored in it. Honey-houses at 

 out-apiaries should be constructed of i x 12-inch plank in sections small 

 enough to be hauled on wagons. It is not necessary to put a floor in 

 these outer honey-houses; but the main honey-house at home should. have 

 a wood or cement floor, because there is always more or less dampness 

 arising from the earth, and honey-houses should be kept dry. All honey- 

 houses must be constructed bee-proof, or have no openings about them 

 that will admit bees through them ; for after the honey is put in you will 

 not want to go to the trouble of putting it up bee-proof; besides, you 

 could not work with honey during the day if the house were not bee-proof, 

 for the bees would come in on you. Each honey-house must have a door 

 and one or more windows in it, covered with screen wire on the outside,, 

 making it bee-proof, and a glass or wood shutter on the inside. The door 

 should have a wooden shutter on the outside, and a sliding screen-wire 

 door on the inside that will make the opening bee-proof. These shutters 

 should be opened while working in the house during warm weather. If 

 the apiaries are operated for extracted honey there should be small sliding 

 windows with only a wood shutter in each house; for if the honey is 

 carried in at the door a few bees will get in every time there is any 

 carried in, and they will be killed or in the way; but the window can be 

 opened and shut so quick that only a few if any bees can get in it. On 

 the inside of these small windows there should be a small platform or shelf 

 built so that the comb-buckets containing the honey can be pushed in on 

 them, and the buckets containing the empty comb set on them to be carried 

 back to the hives. 



Perhaps the cheapest and most durable honey-houses can be con- 

 structed out of I X 12 plank set up perpendicularly, and strips nailed over 

 the joints; and if the roof has a very good pitch to it, the same kind of 

 plank will make a good cover for it, nailing down wide strips over the 

 joints well; but if the roof is nearly flat the strips should be left off and 

 the plank covered with some kind of prepared roofing. In constructing a 

 honey-house out of this kind of material there is but very little framing used 

 in it, and it makes a good strong durable honey-house, and is easily kept 

 bee-proof, and costs but little, and is easy to construct. 



WAX-RENDERING. 



Beeswax is a part of the product of the apiary for which there is 



always a great demand, and it brings a good price. All undesirable combs, 



fragments of combs scrapings from the frames and interior of the hives 



should be saved and rendered into wax, and the bees given credit for it. 



