138 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar, 1 



ORCHARD AND APIARY OF C. B. LAYMAN, TROUTVILLE, VA. 



Mr. Layman figures that his bees pay him as well in the extra amount of fruit that they enable him to 

 get as they do in honey. 



or not. When the planing is done under 

 our instructions the siding and roof boards 

 are ^ inch thick. 



Fig. 1 shows the sUding shop-window, 

 which needs but little explanation. Be- 

 tween the plate at the top of the side section 

 and the girt running parallel to it, about 26 

 inches below, the opening for the window is 

 left. This is covered with wire cloth on the 

 outside, and just a plain board sliding win- 

 dow is used inside, no glass being needed. 

 We keep making these windows larger and 

 larger, our last one being between 5 and 6 

 feet long. They are located a little in front 

 of the center of the building, as this is 

 where most of the work is done. 



We have used both shingles and felt for 

 the roof. The latter material is lighter and 

 more easily moved, and in most cases pref- 

 erable, though it may be more expensive 

 in the end. Each side of the roof, as men- 

 tioned before, is separate, and is about 8X17 

 ft. in size. The two parts of the roof are the 

 heaviest pieces to handle, and we are think- 

 ing of having the roof of our next building 

 in four pieces for convenience. 



All of our extracting-houses are bee-tight, 

 made so by the use of tar paper put on with 

 lath in such good shape that not a bee can 



get in. It is difficult to get a carpenter 

 who will do this work and be particular 

 enough to crowd every lath snugly into the 

 corners so bees can neither get in nor out. 

 The siding between the frames, and the roof 

 boards between the rafters, are all papered; 

 and the floor, being planed and matched, 

 renders the whole building tight. We have 

 one of these portable houses at each of our 

 yards, and consider them indispensable. 



Figs. 3 and 4 in the engraving show our 

 Pine Lake yard, located three-fourths of a 

 mile south of Remus, and we call this our 

 home yard, as it is the nearest. It is locat- 

 ed in a "nick" of the woods open to the 

 south, and is fairly well protected from pre- 

 vailing winds. Before the fire of 1908, which 

 burned much of the timber near this yard, 

 it was an ideally protected location. If the 

 reader will turn to Fig. 3 he will see a tree 

 leaning slightly toward the bee-yard. This 

 stands close to a low swampy piece of ground, 

 affording water to the bees during April 

 and May, so that at times they do not have 

 to go more than three rods for water in a 

 protected place where they can carry water 

 for breeding on days when it would be sui- 

 cidal for them to venture out in the wind. 



Only half the advantages of outside pro- 



