THE AMERICAN APIGULTURTST. 



Another time I built a box or hive 30 

 feet long to hold 15 colonies, and wide 

 enough to pack around them with saw- 

 dust. 'I'hen a four-inch pipe was run 

 under the brood nests and one end ran 

 into a celiai' where the temperature was 

 kept at about 90 to 100 degrees. At 

 the outward end of the pipe was the 

 on'y escape of the hot air from the cel- 

 lar. 



This warm air was admitted into the 

 brood-chambers through a number of 

 small holes made in the bottom-board. 

 'J'his plan gave the best satisfaction of 

 any I know of for honey-gathering col- 

 onies, but this would not pay for the 

 trouble in dollars and cents. I used 

 this warm air and gave warm stimula- 

 tive food each day. It was a great deal 

 of satisfaction to build the colonies up 

 in this artificial way so early. 



I expect to try the experiment again 

 in a year or two, and on a more exten- 

 sive scale. 



Clinton, Wis. C. W. Dayton. 



I do not expect to liavc to feed the col- 

 onies in my beehouse to the extent Bro. 

 ] )ayton thinks necessary . Those that have 

 plenty of stores will not be fed any. I 

 do not think it necessary to carry the tem- 

 perature up to 9(t". It will not be allowed 

 to drop below 50° at night. — En.] 



HOUSE APIARIES. 



NO; II. 



The December issue of Api presents 

 a number of new ideas upon the sub- 

 ject of house apiaries. The editor has 

 evidently been studying upon a plan 

 for a house-apiary for some time, and 

 it now seems to me probable that the 

 ])lacing of an open end wire cloth box 

 between the hive and side of building 

 through which the bees must pass, to 

 reach the outer entrance, may make all 

 the difference between success and fail- 

 ure with an artificially heated bee-house 

 as ])roposed. P'or summer use I think 

 that there should be at least two one- 

 inch auger holes for an outer entrance, 

 1) it one of them would be large enough 

 for the winter and spring. The stop- 



ping of auger holes in the manner sug- 

 gested I have tried for several years and 

 I find the corks both cheap and entirely 

 satisfactory. On very cold days in win- 

 ter and spring the outer entrances could 

 be stopped and the temperature raised 

 to 70 degrees and the bees be made 

 most comfortable. The wire cloth box in 

 front would give them a chance to come 

 out and wash their faces and return to 

 the hive contented. On suitable days 

 for the bees to fly out the corks can be 

 removed to be replaced at evening. The 

 wire cloth box could be made as wide 

 as the hive and three to six inches high 

 and four to six inches long, which would 

 give ample room for the bees to come 

 out and get the fresh air. The box 

 could also be arranged so as to be easily 

 removed for cleansing wiien necessary. 



I am much interested in these ex- 

 periments and can see nothing in the 

 way of the practical utility of such bee 

 houses except the first cost and the sub- 

 sequent cost of fuel and labor necessary 

 to the proper care of the bees. 



These measures are expected to give 

 the bees a great start on fruit blooms 

 and then again upon the lo ust, tulip 

 tree and wild cherry bloom which have 

 been the only sources of surplus in tliis 

 locality for the last three years. These 

 rarely fail of a crop if we have the bees 

 to ga'her it. Two out of the three years 

 the white clover bloomed i)rofusely but 

 furnished no nectar; the failure of 

 nectar secretion being due in my opin- 

 ion to heavy frosts in May that also 

 damaged all kinds of fruit. 



With the best management heretofore 

 adopted we have been able to get 

 only a part of our colonies, in condition 

 as to numbers of the bees to take ad- 

 vantage of the sources of nectar named. 

 If the artificially heated house apiary 

 will give us the bees at a cost not to ex- 

 ceed the worth of the surplus that may 

 be had from the early bloom, then it 

 may pay all beekeepers to construct 

 cheap bee houses and resort to an en- 

 tirely different system of winter and 

 spring management than heretofore 

 adopted. 



