HAVING decided on the furniture of the garden and the flowers it should grow, and the best kind of neighbourhood for pasture, we must now discuss (and it is done from very considerable experience) the structure and aspect of the bee-house under shelter of which your hives are to stand. Taylor remarks:—
"The common wooden bee-houses, as usually constructed, open in front, and closed altogether behind, retaining the sun's heat as an oven, are objectionable. These are frequently the receptacles of dirt and vermin, and most inconvenient to operate in. It would be an improvement to make them deeper backwards; or with a falling front, moving on hinges, so that the hives can be recessed behind it, away from the influence of weather. At the back should be folding doors, opening from top to bottom, allowing a good access to the hives. For greater convenience, it is best to have them only in a single row, with good head room. But a still more desirable plan is to board up the front of the house entirely, making oblong openings through for a passage to the bees, with an exterior alighting-board, a good deal slanted downwards (the bees preferring this to a flat surface). The hives are arranged immediately behind, upon a shelf, the further apart the better, as the bees occasionally mistake their own homes, and fall a sacrifice in consequence."
The following is a sketch of the shed proposed by Dr. Bevan. It is extremely picturesque. My only objection to it is his use of thatch, which shelters vermin—the pests it is hard to keep away in the most favourable circumstances. Dr. Bevan's shed or bee-house is seven feet square in the clear, with three hives on the upper shelves and three on the under.
A very picturesque and efficient bee-shed is presented by Dr. Lardner, about twelve feet long and about nine feet high.
My objection to this bee-house is, that the hives are exposed too much to wind and weather; if of straw, they will soon rot—if of wood, wet and sunshine will rend and split them. Besides, tier above tier is not good, and it need not be adopted.
The shed I prefer is as follows:—Let it be twelve feet six inches in length, six feet in height, and two feet six inches in depth. Let it be made of good, strong, smooth deal. Divide it into six equal compartments, divided off from each other. Let the roof be also of smooth deal, covered first with Croggon's patent felt; and laid over the felt, and nailed down, let there be zinc plates, projecting six or eight inches in front. Let an opening three inches wide extend along the front from end to end, with a continuous landing-board projecting beneath it, and sloping down at an angle of twenty-five degrees. The floor should be about a foot or eighteen inches above the level of the ground, and perfectly smooth. Behind let there be three doors, with hinges attached to the floor, falling back when open, and thereby forming a pleasant platform, when laid down and resting on the ground, for the bee-master to watch and study, and deprive, and otherwise fulfil his mission. When closed, there must be a good padlock, as bee-hive lifters are still too common in every part of the country. In very hot weather, open the doors behind, but only in very hot weather. I have found from experience that the smoother the surfaces of the bee-shed inside, the less they are liable to the operations of the spider, one of the greatest pests of bee-houses. I have unfortunately, and too often, seen a dozen bees entangled of a fine May morning in a spider's web, and most of them excavated in the cleanest manner. Wasps and spiders I have no mercy on; they are thieves and murderers and beasts of prey, as well as vermin. To the former, extermination by brimstone is a just recompense, and to the latter the application of a hard dry brush is a daily duty.