MARCH 1, 1916 205 



SOME ADVANTAGES AJND DISADVANTAGES OF A HOUSE-APIARY 



BY BENJAMIN C. AUTEN 



To keep colonies of bees in a house-apiary, 

 one i^recantion is absolutely necessary — 

 the passaiieways from the hives to the open 

 air must be bee-tight, 

 and carefully main- 

 tained so. This makes 

 it necessary to nail 

 the hives firmly to the 

 floor, and to nail sol- 

 idly any part of the 

 passageway liable to 

 get dislodged. Even a 

 careful explanation of 

 the reasons might not 

 be convincing; but a 

 trial of a carelessly 

 constructed bee - pass- 

 age will be. 



There are some ad- 

 vantages in keeping 

 bees indoors. They 

 are less excitable to 

 work with than out of 

 doors, apparently not 

 considering the open- 

 ing of the hive much 

 of an intrusion. On 

 the other hand, they 

 are not easy to get 



away from in case they do stampede. An- 

 other advantage is, they can be worked with 

 in all kinds of weather, thus permitting the 

 utilization of time that otherwise might be 

 unavoidable. Another, high winds do not 

 scatter the hives in pieces over the prairie. 



There ai-e a good many disadvantages, 

 however, some of them perhaps trivial; but 

 even trivial disadvantages have great weight 

 when an operator has an overburden of 



other difficulties. Entrance manipulations 

 are largely barred, as the outside opening 

 must be at some considerable distance from 



B. C. Auten's liouse upiary, showing the liive entraiires jiist under the eaves. 



the hive, the hive of necessity standing back 

 some distance from the inside of the wall to 

 give opportunity for handling supers, etc. 



All young bees falling off the frames in- 

 doors are irretrievably lost. That may be 

 the case also in outdoor handling; but the 

 loss is not noticed, if it occurs, as the lost 

 bees crawl out of sight at once. 



It is next to imjiossible to hive a swarm 

 indoors, as the bees take up their quartei'S 



A close view of the entrances, with the bees clustering out. 



