THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



187 



in the open air with the blue sky overhead 

 and the breezes on the cheek, then it came 

 to my mind that the hot sun and the rain 

 were sometimes overhead, and the wet grass 

 under foot, and I conchided that, all thiuf^s 

 considered, the house apiary would be fully 

 as pleasant a place to work as in the open 

 air. Mr. Root, in his .1 B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture, says that the house becomes unpleas- 

 antly filled with smoke from the smoker, 

 but that it might be remedied by having a 

 box in which to set the smoker, a small 

 smoke pipe communicating with the open 

 air. If the bees were worked for honey, 

 and bee escapes used, there would really be 

 but little handling of bees, and but little 

 use for smoke. 



Another point comes to me. How would 

 swarming and hiving be managed? I don't 

 remember having read how the hiving of 

 bees is conducted in a house apiary. It 

 would be a difficult matter to shake a swarm 

 down on the outside, as the entrances, at 

 least some of them, are some distance from 

 the ground. It would seem that the plan of 

 allowing the bees to hive themselves by re- 

 turning to the old location would be neces- 

 sary. If the queens were clipped they would, 

 of course, drop oft upon the ground. The 

 use of the queen trap would probably be 

 advisable. If the bees are allowed to hive 

 themselves by returning to the old location, 

 the combs at the old location must be taken 

 away while the bees are in the air. This 

 would be rather a fussy job. Well, I am be- 

 ginning to find objections, or what seems 

 like objections to me. Perhaps it might be 

 advisable to use regular hives in a house 

 apiary, the bottom boards being stationary, 

 the entrance to each hive being through the 

 bottom board. In this way a hive of bees, 

 could be picked up and placed upon a new 

 stand the same as in the open air. If we 

 must have regular hives, why go to the ex- 

 pense of a house apiary? Why have a house 

 apiary, anyway? That's the question. 

 What are the advantages of a house apiary? 

 The colonies, apiarist and his tools are 

 brought close together under shelter. Empty 

 combs, sections, etc., everything needed, 

 can be stored in the room, almost within 

 reach of every hive. In taking off honey it 

 is the same. When the honey is off the 

 hives it is already stored under shelter. 

 Furthermore, wet weather does not stop 

 work if there is any to be done. Neither 

 can robbers give any trouble. These last 



two points are particularly valuable in queen 

 rearing. In fact, it seems to me as though 

 a house apiary offers unusual advantages to 

 the queen breeder. It frequently happens 

 that queen cells must be removed, or nuclei 

 started for the reception of hatching queens, 

 upon a certain day. If that day proves to 

 be a rainy one, such work is almost impossi- 

 ble in the open air. I have sometimes car- 

 ried colonies into the honey house, divided 

 them up into nuclei and introduced queens 

 when it was raining too hard to handle bees 

 in the open air. I have bcveral times had 

 nuclei in my shop, fastened to the wall, the 

 bees flying from an auger hole bored through 

 the side of the shop. I was always well sat- 

 isfied with such an arrangement for queen 

 rearing. 



Ernest Root has been experimenting lately 

 with their abandoned house apiary, and in 

 July 1st Oleanings reports as follows: — 



"I have been conducting, during the past 

 two weeks, quite a series of experiments, to 

 prove or disprove some of the latest ideas, 

 and among them the bee escape for the 

 house apiary. You will remember that W. 

 Z. Hutchinson, of the Review, as well as the 

 senior editor of Gleanings, suggested that 

 the escape might overcome some of its most 

 serious objections. I had been thinking the 

 matter over for about a week: and the up- 

 si ot of it was, I told the boys to clean out 

 the upper story of all rubbish and unused 

 traps, for this is all the use the building has 

 had for six or eight years. When in use it 

 had two-inch auger hole entrances. We 

 tacked Reese cone bee escapes over a dozen 

 of these entrances so that the bees in the 

 dark would see these holes if they got inside 

 of the room, and escape. Those entrances 

 which we expected to use were closed tem- 

 porarily until we could put in nuclei. There 

 are windows on three of the eight sides, 

 hinged at the top, opening on the inside. 

 These were darkened by nailing black tarred 

 paper on the sash. To make the room com- 

 fortable while working in the building, 

 these sashes are hooked to the ceiling above; 

 and to prevent robbers from coming in from 

 the outside, wire cloth was nailed on the out- 

 side window casing. This wire cloth must 

 permit the escape of the bees from out of 

 the room, but prohibit the entrances of bees 

 from the outside. Accordingly, it was cut 

 eight incl^ps longer than the casing, and 

 allowed to project that length above the top 

 of the window. The upper rim of the casing 

 was cut away a quarter of an inch deep and 

 clear across, so as to allow the bees crawling 

 up inside to pass up and out. Those on the 

 outside would not, of course, think of run- 

 ning down the passageway eight inches, and 

 then entering the house apiary — at least, 

 very few would do so. 



Well, now, how does it work? Nicely, so 

 far. The screened windows make the room 

 nice and cool, and the small Reese cone bee 

 escapes nailed to the entrance permit what 



