THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



207 



Combining a House Apiary With a Shop, 



Honey House and Store Room — 



Having the Hives Movable. 



JAMKS UKUDON. 



^ ® ^(i^lf OCISE APIAIIY." That is, a 

 biiildiuK wit hiu which the bees 

 are placed .Mud from which 

 tliey lly out through the walls into the big, 

 l)road world. The building is so large tliat 

 the apiarist goes in without "scroochiug," 

 turus around aud tiuds store room for uten- 

 sils, honey, etc. I built one in l.S7(! at my 

 Glenwood yard, kept bees in it two seasons, 

 then set them out ; not because the inside 

 was not a good enough place in which to 

 keep them but because 1 needed the whole 

 inside of the building as a store room for my 

 growing apiary. 



Tise biiildiug was one story, hip roof, IS 

 feet long and twelve feet wide. The walls 

 were 4 inches in the clear, made of l-iuch 

 matched pine both inside aud out aud the 

 space between tilled witli sawdust. The 

 ceiling was also covered with sawdust to the 

 depth of about one foot. Of course the 

 room was cooler in hot weather aud warmer 

 in cold weather than other rooms. i)G colo- 

 nies were placed in the room, 48 on each 

 side, in two rows, 24 in each row. The bot- 

 tom row was raised about 8 inches above the 

 floor, while the upper row was placed at such 

 a height above the lower tier as to admit of 

 tiering-up the supers upon- the lower row. 



Witliout going into details regarding how 

 tiie hives were adjusted to the wall, tiie en- 

 trances to the hives, etc., I must tell you, 

 Mr. Editor, that for once we have caught 

 you nappiug ; I see you are not experien ed 

 in regard to house apiaries. Now, see here, 

 never allow any one to advocate in your 

 paper the use of' auy hives, frames, cases or 

 brood chambers that are jlxed within the 

 building. I used the same bottom board I 

 now use — fast on my modification of the 

 L. hive aud loose on my new patented hive. 

 My hive could be adjusted to the house ai)i- 

 ary with a single motion. Now don't you 

 see that this arrangement, while having no 

 objectionable features, made all the hives 

 aud colonies in the house intercliangable 

 with those outside ? Do you not see, still 

 further, that your objections to hiving 

 swarms are washed away, because the 

 swarms are hived out of doors in any con- 

 venient place, and, when the bees are all in. 

 the brood chamber is carried into the house 

 and placed where desired 'i Of course, this 



manipulation, like most mauii)ulatiou, is 

 best adapted to fixed frames, yet it was a 

 practical success with the 1j. frame. 



You mention the never ending anuoyance 

 of the bees escaping in the room. Your 

 whole thought seems to be directed 8imi)ly 

 to the removing of surplus honey. Pshaw, 

 now, couldn't we, without any bee escapes, 

 carry the surplus cases out of tlie room, or 

 into a little closet, made in the room, aud 

 fitted with a cone escape V rerha[)s you 

 will ask how about the few bees that escape 

 while moving the auri)lus cases. Suppose I 

 ask you about the bees that escape wliile you 

 are adjusting your bee escapes, or handling 

 your brood frames, or cases, or during the 

 various other manipulations sometimes nec- 

 essary. Well, let mo answer for you. We 

 used a bridge to drop down upon the 

 alighting board the same as we do when 

 packing the bees for winter in big boxes. In 

 the top of this bridge was an inch hole with 

 a little loose block to cover it up. When a 

 lot of bees got outside the hive, if they did 

 not fly around the room and out of doors 

 (and, by the way, very few bees take wing 

 in the room) this block was removed, aud in 

 a little while all the bees would be back in 

 the hive. By the way, we used to rid the 

 surplus boxes of bees in the same manner, 

 and instead of bee escapes settling the 

 house apiary problem, I doubt if they would 

 pay for their cost in a house apiary. An- 

 other thing : if we forgot to drop on this 

 bridge, leaving the alighting l)Oard all open 

 to the inside of the room for a space of .'5 x 1^ 

 inches, the bees never flew up into the room. 

 They passed in and out without seeming to 

 notice the opening. But it is best to have 

 the alighting boards closed as when the bees 

 are haigiugout, and the entrances are only 

 a siiort distance apart, a lot of returning 

 bees may enter the wrong hive. 



I think I made a mistake in not making 

 my house apiary wider. Had 1 made it 18 

 feet wide I could have had my hive accom- 

 modations aud plenty of room besides, and 

 would not have Ijeen crowded out for want 

 of store room. But I am not " possessed of 

 an abandoned house apiary " to experiment 

 with, for the one in (luestiou burned last 

 spring from sparks from a saw mill. The 

 house is gone, the mill is gone, and I am left 

 with my experience and the insurance upon 

 the building and its contents which consisted 

 of apicultural implements — no bees. 



The house apiary possesses some splen- 

 did advantages. ( )ut of the sun, out of the 



