202 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



wall with litter or coarse mauure; to prevent 

 the wind from blowing into the cellar, close 

 all ventilators, and each entrance to a small 

 lly hole, and put chaff cushions on all hives. 

 Of course the bees in 20 hives assist in keep- 

 ing an even temperature; but sometimes, 

 when we have a protracted spell of extreme- 

 ly cold weather, I put in an oil stove for a 

 few days, which assists materially. I find 

 that in a mild open winter the house apiary 

 winters bees better than chaff' hives; but in 

 an extremely cold winter, especially long 

 spells of cold, the well packed chaff' hives 

 come out the best. 



In spring, as soon as the bees begin to 

 raise brood, the temperature of the house 

 rises and it is readily seen that many weak 

 stocks that would be of no value outside are 

 enabled to breed up, on account of the tem- 

 perature maintained by the other bees. For 

 this reason, also, it is not necessary to 

 spread brood as in outside hives. 



Having such a nice handy place to take off' 

 surplus I run ray bees both for extracted and 

 comb honey; generally extracting all the 

 late honey. I use a hive with a closed end 

 frame, the ends of frame a»e lijX^axD's 

 high and tlie top and bottom bars are nailed 

 in so as to leave I4 inch bee space. The 

 frames are reversible. Eight frames and 

 two paunels are set into a rim ^4 inches 

 deep, with strips ^^ inch thick naiied under 

 for the frames, which are hugged up with 

 wedges or screws, to rest on; this gives % 

 inch space between the bottom bars of 

 the frames and the shelf. The comb space 

 in each frame is about T^sxlT inches. Every 

 hive has a zinc (^ueen excluder whether it is 

 run for section or extracted honey. My sec- 

 tion case holds 7 single-tier wide frames. I 

 aim to have whole cases finished at 

 once so as to not have much handling of sec- 

 tions. When the surplus is ready to come 

 off I can go in the house and take it all oft" 

 the 20 hives in 20 minutes. I commence by 

 putting one or two light cases near the win- 

 dow and then stand all cases on end with 

 both top and Ijottom open. If there are no 

 roV)bers the bees will all work out through 

 the window in an liour or two. If there are 

 robbers, I close the window and the outside 

 door and then open the window once in ;>0 

 minutes, not oftener, and brush out with 

 brush and dust pan all bees tliat have clus- 

 tered on or over the window. In an hour or 

 two the bees will all have worked out except 

 a few young bees clustered in the light cases 



near the window. These can be carried out 

 and shaken down before a nucleus or weak 

 colony. The honey can be taken to the 

 honey room and the door and window left 

 open so all straggling bees can come out. I 

 formerly had 50 stocks of bees outside and 

 always carried the surplus in the bee house 

 to clear it of bees. If good Italian bees, 

 such as remain quietly on the combs, are 

 used, they handle nicely in the bee house. 



The light is sufficient with door and win- 

 dow open: with door and window shut it is 

 necessary to step to the window to see eggs 

 in the cells. The upper ventilator carries off 

 smoke. 



There are many places where a bee house 

 would be an advantage. They can be con- 

 structed very much cheaper without the non- 

 swarming feature simply with a ground 

 floor and the corners hooked together so as 

 to be removaljle. I have heard of several 

 constructed in that way in Pennsylvania 

 that were a great success. 



A house apiary is a handy place to keep 

 tools, such as smoker, smoke-wood, matches, 

 etc., etc, and when the ;ipiarist goes in to 

 handle bees there are no outside covers to re- 

 move and the hives all are handy. In swarm- 

 ing I clip the queen and remove the hive 

 while the bees are swarming. 

 BiNGHAMTON, N. Y. July 20. 1«)1. 



In a private note accompanying the above, 

 Mr. Moore says: " 1 can't see why folks 

 have so much trouble in taking off the sur- 

 plus in the house apiary. It is the nicest 

 place in the world to take off surplus. I 

 presume the trouble comes from letting in 

 the light from thres or four different direc- 

 tions. Let the light in fi-om only one direc- 

 tion if you want to get the bees out." 



Securing Abundant Increase "With Small 



Divisible Brood Chamber Hives. — The 



Value of Swarm Catchers. 



B. TAYLOK. 



!l\lEND Hutchinson, in complying 

 with your request for an article ex- 

 plaining my method of obtaining 

 large increase when using small doulile 

 hives, 1 will tell what I have done in that di- 

 rection since July 1st. 



The burden of handling large numbers of 

 liees in the swarming season liad made me 

 resolve to extend my colonies no further. 1 

 had parted with about 200 colonies jn the last 



