T 



ic (Dee-f\eepeps' f\e\^iecu 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to t^e Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$1.00 A YEAR, 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, EditoP & PPop. 



VOL, IV, FLINT, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 10. 1891. NO. 8. 



The speeial topie of this issue Is 



" House Apiaries," 



That of the next issue cuill be 



Handling Hives Instead of Franqes. 



An Old House Apiary and How it is Man- 

 aged all the Year Round. 



J. p. MOOUE. 



AVING used one of Faulkner's non- 

 swarming house apiaries for the past 

 19 years, I will give you a brief de- 

 scription of the house and its managment. 

 The house is 12 W feet lung by 8 feet wide 

 by 6 feet high, inside measure. The hives 

 are arranged on two shelves, 18 inches wide, 

 on each side of the house, with five hives on a 

 shelf. Each hive occupies 2}-^ feet of shelf, 

 making 20 hives in the house. The lower 

 shelf is 8 inches from floor and the upper 

 shelf 2 feet 8 inches above lower one. The 

 side walls are packed with ri inches of saw- 

 dust, ceiled up outside and in, and papered 

 and sided outside. The entrance to each 

 hive is 12 inches wide by 'i inch deep. The 

 alighting-boards are 20 inches wide, project 

 from the house 1<> inches and extend through 

 the wall and join the slielf. They slant 

 enough to prevent rain from driving into the 

 hives. The lower alighting-boards are a 

 foot from the ground. There is a door, or 

 rather two doors, in the south end. The in- 

 ner one with glass opens in, the outer one is 



tight and opens out. There is a window, 4 

 feet high and 1^' feet wide in the north end, 

 hung on pivots at top and bottom, and re- 

 volves. This makes one bee escape. The 

 other is formed by sliding the glass up 3^2 

 inch in the door and shutting the blind over 

 the window, wheji the bees will work out 

 through the door. There are 8 inches of 

 sawdust in the iioor, and 14 inches overhead. 



The non-8warming features consist, first, 

 m a cellar 6 feet deep, walled up to the top 

 of the ground. The building stands on the 

 wall on (i iron pins driven in the sills; which 

 leaves 1^.3 inch space between the walls and 

 sills, all around. In the center of the floor 

 is a ventilator 4 feet long by 2 feet wide, 

 with flue same size running down to within 

 inches of cellar bottom: also two flues 10 

 inches square in the ceiling connected with 

 the air shaft and running up through the 

 roof 5 feet above the peak. There are venti- 

 lators through the shelves; in the bottoms, 

 and near the back side of the hives. These 

 ventilators are covered with wire cloth. 



In hot weather, when the house is closed 

 with the exception of the lower ventilator, 

 the bees fanning at the mouths of 20 hives 

 will raise the cool air from the bottom of 

 the cellar and pass it over the bottom of the 

 hives, and maintain an even temperature 

 inside, night and day, which is an advantage 

 when the bees are working in sections. It 

 is not a perfect non-swarmer as I have had 

 three to six swarms from it every year. 



To prepare the house for winter it is only 

 necessary to bank around the top of the 



