234 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



clear, and hold eighty colonies. I use the 

 inside of my old chaff hive, have a window 

 eighteen inches square over each hive. The 

 window is without glass and is closed by a 

 close fitting slide. The bees of all the hives 

 have access to inside of house at will. 



I have no use for bee escapes. When bees 

 are shaken off the combs or out of the 

 sections they can go out of the windows or 

 in the hives as they like. 



The principal objection to the house apiary 

 is the loss of queens. If a colony swarms 

 or supercedes its queen the young one is 

 very likely to be lost. For this reason they 

 m ust be watched closer than outside hives. 



I build my houses double wall and pack 

 with sawdust four inches thick, sides, top 

 and bottom; still, I lose more in winter than 

 I used to in chaft" hives. 



Laoeyville, Aug. 20, 1891. 



Some of the Great Advantages to be Enjoyed 

 in a House Apiary. 



HENBY STEWABT. 



f CAUGHT the house apiary fever some- 

 thing over a year ago after reading an 

 article from the pen of a Colorado gen- 

 tleman who has several of these buildings in 

 operation. This fever continued its raging 

 until this summer, when I put up a building 

 for an out apiary, and I am so much pleased 

 with the same that I send you a description 

 of it. 



The building is frame, shingle roof, and 

 enclosed with matched drop siding. It is 

 sixty feet long, six feet wide, six feet high, 

 and will hold seventy-eight colonies. The 

 sides of the building face north and south, 

 and the hives are placed inside in two rows, . 

 on each side, with an alleyway of two and 

 one-half feet between. One row on each 

 side is placed on the floor with an eighteen 

 inch space between each two hives. In each 

 of these vacant spaces is a stand two feet 

 high on which the second row of hives are 

 placed. Each hive is connected with the 

 outside by means of a runway through the 

 side of the building, and in front of each 

 runway is fastened an alighting board. To 

 assist the bees to mark their location the 

 alighting boards are of different shapes, and 

 above them are painted different designs 

 with different colored paint. The location 

 of each hive is known to the apiarist by a 

 corresponding number on the inside and 

 outside of the building. For light and ven- 



tilation I inserted a strip of wire screen 

 twelve inches wide which, with the exception 

 of one corner, runs around the entire build- 

 ing. This is placed near the top. This 

 screen is arranged with bee exits in it so as 

 to allow any bees that may leave their hives 

 inside to escape out of doors. 



The poor season thus far has not given 

 me a very extended experience in working 

 with the bees in the building, but so far it 

 has been a very satisfactory one. I find that 

 too much smoke is a little disagreeable, but 

 it is not necessary to use as much as for out 

 of doors work, as the opei'ator has nothing 

 to do with the guards at the entrance which 

 usually cause the greater part of the disturb- 

 ance, and the apiarist does not have an ex- 

 cited mob following him from one hive to 

 another. 



I am satisfied that the bee escape for re- 

 moving honey will work as satisfactorily 

 here as out of doors, save that one will have 

 to exercise a little more care in brushing the 

 bees which adhere to the bottom side of the 

 escape. This I generally do outside by 

 giving it a throw, bees, escape and all. 



For winter and spring protection I selected 

 the warmest and most sheltered place I 

 could find, the building being nearly sur- 

 rounded with thick timber. A neighbor told 

 me I would roast my bees in there, but 

 during the hottest days we have had this 

 summer it was nice and cool inside compared 

 with the heat in the open sunlight. 



The building cost about fifty dollars be- 

 sides the work of building. This work will 

 soon be gotten back in the matter of conven- 

 ience, and the expense will be lessened in 

 many ways. First, hives need no painting, 

 and cull pieces which would be unfit for out 

 of door use are all riglit for < ives to be used 

 inside. The bee keeper is never bothered 

 with covers blowing off nor leaky hives. 

 The grass is always mown in front of the 

 hives. The work of preparing for winter 

 and the same for spring is lessened more 

 than three-fourths. In the spring it is often 

 quite advisable to feed and do other work 

 with the bees which can't well be practically 

 done out of doors without exciting robbing; 

 but in the house, with a little caution to 

 keep the entrance contracted, any work can 

 be done at any time with safety. 



This apiary is to be run for comb honey, 

 and during swarming time it will be neces- 

 sary to keep a hand here. My design was to 

 have a work bench in one end of the build- 



