THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



205 



There are several house apiaries iu my 

 locality and others in process of construc- 

 tion and no objection has ever been heard of 

 so far as 1 know. With a practice of four 

 years alouti this line, 1 submit the above 

 and close by saying that a house and hiveH 

 as I have described will cost about !j;2r> in 

 this locality. I enclose a photogra ph of the 



INTEEIOB OF HOUSE APIABY SHOWING COLONIES 

 PACKED FOB WINTER, CUSHIONS, ETC. 



exterior and interior of my house, also one 

 of my good wife catching her first swarm 

 with her catcher. 



Reinebsville, Ohio., July 24th, 1891. 



[For view of exterior of house apiary see 

 Extracted Department. — Ed.] 



A Tall House Apiary With an Elevator 

 and Cellar. 



OLIVEB FOSTER. 



NY repository for bees to be generally 

 practical, must be economical. The 

 " McKinley bill" has so cheapened 

 all table luxuries into which sugar enters, 

 that honey must also be produced cheaply if 

 it finds a ready market. 



Were it not for one or two ditiiculties I 

 think a house apiary miglit be devised, that 

 would be, in the end, all things considered, 

 as economical as a yard apiary. 



.\t present the most serious objection I 

 think of is that it will not admit of my 

 present ideal method of wintering, which is, 

 in brief, under ground, with access to the 

 open air. 



The next objection is tiiat to be sufficient- 

 ly economical, the hives must be too close 

 togetlier for easy manipulation. 



I cannot do better here than to refer the 

 leader to a description and illustration of the 

 only liouse apiary, properly so called, that I 

 have used. It is found on page 2:^1, Glean- 

 itigs ill Bee Culture for May, 1882. (See Ex- 

 tracted Department of tliis number. ) 



This apiary for 14 hives, was most economi- 

 cal. On the whole, it was successful, but the 

 bottom of the hive apartments, being thin 

 and near the ground, soon rotted out. Also 

 the great weight of the tiers of seven hives 

 each, caused them to settle in the middle, 

 which caused openings through between 

 the apartments which were only separated by 

 ^2 inch boards. It was also diffiult to re- 

 move colonies or interchange their places. 

 About the time the house gave out I adopted 

 the standard simplicity L. frame, which 

 would require a change in the details of con- 

 struction. I still use some important fea- 

 tures of this system. 



Were I to build another house apiary, I 

 should want each hive, including its bottom 

 board, aeparate and reuiovable. I should 

 want tlie entrance of the hive a foot or more 

 from the wall of the building, through 

 which, in front of each hive entrance, I 

 would have an opening, a foot or more 

 square, only I would not have the openings 

 all alike, but of different shapes, round, tri- 

 anglar, oblong etc., to assist the bees in mark 

 ing their own entrances. No other windows, 

 doors nor escapes would be required, except 

 for the entrance of the operator, and for his 

 convenience while working, as no bees will 

 remain on the floor but will strike for the 

 entrance and the light. 



The bee escape will assist in taking off 

 honey, but no escape will cause all the bees 

 of some colonies to leave the combs at once. 

 A week or ten days often finds many still 

 clinging to the combs, especially those for 

 extracting, so that, to expedite matters, not 

 only when removing honey but also in 

 various other operations, it often becomes 

 very convenient to shake bees in front of the 

 hive. Also whenever a hive is opened that 

 is crowded with bees, many of them are left 

 outBide. These soon find the entrance if it 



