A Suggestion for a Honey House

by L.C. Wheeler of Barryton, MI, 1913

The pen drawings represent my honey house as it stands today. I am not sending it to you because I think it is an ideal honey house by any means, but considering the surroundings it suits me very well. The surface of the ground around the house and bee-yard is perfectly flat and level, so there is no chance to build on two levels, or I would have built it that way. As it is I have tried to have things as handy as possible with everything on one level. Drawing No. 1 represents the house as it appears from the side next to our dwelling house. No. 2 shows the ground floor plan, and the upper floor is just one solid room the size of the whole building, or 16 by 30 feet.

The work-shop is on the right as you look at the building, and here is where I make lots of those little things I can make just as well as to buy. I used to make my own hives and all, but have decided that it did not pay. I do like hives that are absolutely perfect, and while this is possible with the machine I have, it is impracticable, not because the machine will not do it but because it is so hard to get lumber which is seasoned as it should be to keep it from shrinking after making it up. I do make my own bottom boards mostly, as I can make one I like better than the factory-made at half the cost.

The work-shop is lined with shelves where I keep the various odds and ends which accumulate in the work-shop. The upper floor is used for a store room and I find it is none too large. In fact, sometimes I find it pretty hard to get everything packed away in it. The honey house at the out yard is not designed to hold much when in use, although I do fill it up in the fall and leave it that way till I am ready to use it again in the spring.