52 THE BEE-HOUSE. 



CHAPTER III. 

 THE BEE-HOUSE. 



No one that could afford to purchase bee-boxes, 

 and to construct a bee-house, or to convert to that 

 use some building already constructed, would 

 hesitate, I should think, to give them the prefe- 

 rence over common straw hives and an out- 

 door apiary, whether he looked to ultimate profit 

 or to present convenience and security. 



Perhaps I cannot give a better notion of what 

 I consider as the most eligible plan of a bee- 

 house, than by describing the construction of my 

 own. The whole building, besides answering the 

 purpose of an apiary, may be made subservient to 

 other uses ; my own serves for storing potatoes. 

 The potatoe-cellar is sunk two thirds of its depth 

 in the earth, and the bee-house is raised upon it, 

 having a couple of steps up to the door. The di- 

 mensions of both are seven feet six inches by six 

 feet clear within, which affords room for five co- 

 lonies. 



The piles or stories of bee-boxes are placed in 

 the bee-house at somewhat less than two feet 

 apart, so as to make the external entrance to each 

 pile respectively, about a yard asunder. See the 

 plate which forms the frontispiece of this work. 



