10 PEARCE METHOD OF BEE-KEEPING 



Cut your 12 side studding, 6 feet, 2 inches long and 

 place them 32 inches from center to center. This gives you 

 5 equal spaces, and a window is put in the center of each, as 

 high as you can look out of nicely, and the piece of siding 

 that you leave for the bees to fly out, you can hinge at 

 the bottom with strap hinges, and there it will answer the 

 double purpose of closing up this opening along the side of 

 the building in stormy weather and it can be turned down 

 level in good weather or may be dropped clear down out 

 of the way, by the side of the house. This completes all the 

 accessories and will give you a most complete home for your 

 bees. Filled with our double sized hives, I know of nothing 

 better. This house should always be built north and south, 

 and on level land; if the land is not level you can easily 

 grade it down or build shorter houses. But if you should be 

 building one long house for say a 100 colonies or more, I 

 would advise you to put safety first and anchor it down well 

 in some way. Ours has strap iron spiked onto the side of 

 the building and running down and bent off out in a trench 

 2 to 3 feet deep and cement and stones piled on this iron 

 and the trench filled with rocks. This should hold it down. 

 While with all these hives filled, so they weigh around a 

 hundred pounds each, there may be no danger, but some- 

 times we get strong winds from the west; and I would 

 rather go to a little trouble and always feel safe. If this 

 house is on your own land it may stand for a long time and 

 give you a good deal of pleasure and profit. 



From the description here given and these specifica- 

 tions, anyone can build a house like this or as many of them 

 as they like, or any length house on this same plan, and they 

 can be built for about what those double walled hives per 

 hive can be built and very much cheaper than the former 

 Root or Hilton hives would cost, if built now. There should 

 be a lot of these shelters, built for bees ; for the practice of 

 leaving bees out, exposed to the storms in any kind of a 

 hive or putting them down cellar for so long a period should 

 be discontinued, for we still remember how Mr. Geo. Hilton 

 lost his fine apiary in Northern Michigan, although protected 

 in the Hilton Hive. I will now give all the material for this 

 house in a summarized form, so anyone can order it. This 

 house will hold 10 colonies without crowding and leave room 

 to double the apiary and leave the 20 swarms in this house 

 till spring or longer if you were not going to increase again. 



