THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



69 



to slip over the supers as a cap. They make 

 the nicest kind of shade. I saw their ad- 

 vantage in this particular when I visited Mr. 

 Elwood's apiary recently. He has a similar 

 outside case which he employs even for sum 

 mer use ; and the sides hanging down pro- 

 tect the sides of the supers from the sun. 

 Medina, O. March 3, 1W»1. 



Arranging Hives in Circles — Scattering 



Buildings to Avoid a Wholesale Loss by 



Fire — An Excellent Shop, Honey 



Room and Bee Cellar. 



B. TAYLOB, 



JRIEND Hutchinson, I see the question 

 of Buildings for the Apiary is to be 

 continued, and I have concluded to 

 give my ideas on tlie subject. 



I consider the advice of most of your cor- 

 respondents, to make everything, workshop, 

 honey house, wintering cellar, storage room 

 and all in one building, bad advice, and this 

 fur two main reasons, viz., convenience and 

 safety. I kaow that it is cheaper, in the cost 

 of building, to make all in one structure, 

 but economy in time and labor in using 

 them strongly favors scattering them 

 through the yard, while safety absolutely 

 demdiidfi it. Where all is concentrated in 

 one building, should a lire occur, which we 

 know frequently happens, it would mean 

 ruin more or less complete to most bee- 

 keepers. 



My bee yard has the hives placed in three 

 circles, the circles arranged in the form of a 

 triangle. Each circle is tiU feet in diameter, 

 with a smaller circle, containing eight stands 

 of two hives each, within the larger circle. 

 After a thorough trial, this arrangement 

 pleases me better than any that I have yet 

 tried. It is compact, convenient, and gives 

 an individuality to each stand that I never 

 could obtain in any other way. 



My buildings are conveniently located 

 around this yard. My curing house for 

 comb honey is covered entirely with iron, 

 making it as near fire-proof as possible. It 

 is 12x12 feet in size, will hold ir),()00 pounds 

 of comb honey, and is situated so a fire in 

 the other buildings would not endanger it. 

 The wintering cellar is l()x40 feet in size, 

 with capacity for 200 colonies, and is on the 

 west side of the yard, and entirely out of 

 danger of fire from the shop or dwelling. 

 In the room above the cellar I store my next 

 year's stock of hives, sections, foundation, 



hive covers, bottom boards, queen excluding 

 honey boards, and numerous other things, 

 which, with my stock of bees, are all secure 

 from fire, in case the shop, the most liable 

 of all to burn, should be consumed. This 

 wintering cellar is built of stone and wood, 

 and partly below ground, and I left nothing 

 undone, so far as knowledge goes, to make 

 it perfect ; and so well did success attend my 

 efforts that for three months, without the 

 slightest change, or even opening a door or 

 ventilator, the thermometer has not been 

 above 44'^ nor fell below 42% and the bees 

 seem to be wintering in the most perfect 

 way. The building cost about $300, and I 

 consider it one of the best investments I 

 ever made in the bee business. 



The shop, 22x40 feet, is 1}-^ stories high, 

 finished and painted in good style, and is 

 fitted with steam power and machinery of 

 the most perfect kind for making everything 

 needed by a bee-keeper. It cost about 

 $1,(J00; and, although I do but little work out- 

 side of my own supplies, I consider it a first- 

 class investment, as my IG-year-old son and 

 myself can go into it any day and do the 

 work of ten hand workers. Here, in the 

 winter, we make hives, supers, sections, 

 queen excluding honey boards, swarm 

 catchers, foundation, and other needed 

 things. There is a little building to the left 

 of the honey house for cleaning the cases of 

 bees before depositing them in the honey 

 house. In the honey house I keep the comb 

 honey for two months at a temperature of 

 100"" before crating it. It is then crated in 

 12-pound, nearly leakage-proof crates, and 

 in the crowded markets of 188!) I found no 

 great trouble in disposing of thirteen tons at 

 a fair price. 



FoKESTViLLE, Minn. Feb. 2, 1891. 



Why I Don't Use Separators. 



W. p. HENDEKSON. 



f DON'T use separators because bees will 

 occupy the sections much sooner with- 

 out them. 

 Where only starters are used in the sec- 

 tions, with separators, the bees, in drawing 

 out the foundation, will stop short of the 

 bottom, which will not be the case without 

 the separators. 



AVith full sheets of thin foundation in the 

 sections, with separators, the bottoms are 

 cut away by the bees for passage from side 

 to side. 



