THE BEE-I'EEPERS' REVIEW 



41 



ize, or disorganize, a colony more fre- 

 quentl}', as the resxilt of givinj;;' them 

 freshly extracted combs to clean up. 

 Then, again, one can extract loO 

 pounds of honey from a colony at one 

 operation more quickly and economi- 

 cally than to extract the same amount 

 at three different extractings. When 

 near the close of the harvest, if some 

 colonies are crowded for room, and 

 others are slow in filling their combs, 

 full combs may ' be exchanged with 

 those having plent\' of room. In this 

 wa3'. when we came to extract, there 

 are no blanks to cause loss of time. 



WHKRE BEK ESCAPES ARK NOT NEEDED. 



In freeing the comb'^ of bees, it would 

 be an easj^ matter for me to say, "use 

 bee-escapes," and no doubt I shall 

 meet with strong opposition in advis- 

 ing against their use in the production 

 of extracted honey, but I fail to 

 see where the^' are a labor saver. 

 They may be an advantage to timid 

 bee-keepers, but, in all of our manipu- 

 lations, we try to avoid as much as 

 possible the lifting of supers filled with 

 combs and bees, and, in extracting. I 

 never break loose the last super bod^'. 

 as, with crowded hives, we must work 

 slowly or kill more or less bees. With 

 the use of bee-escapes, every pound of 

 honey has to be lifted once oftener than 

 without them. That is, when the 

 escape is put in place, and this is no 

 pla3' when one has three or four supers 

 of ten combs each in a twelve-comb 

 space. Then, again, it necessitates 

 the running back and forth to the hives 

 ahead. As you take one off, you must 

 run, say, ten hives ahead, and put 

 the escape-board in place, wliich is a 

 great waste of time. The colony is 

 disorganized a much longer time, 

 which, in a good honey flow, is a seri- 

 ous item. In cool weather the hone}' 

 becomes cooler, and I am not sure that 

 the crowding of the bees into the brood 

 chamber during hot weather does not 

 have an influence in starting the 

 swarming impulse, where the crowd- 



ing is greatly prolonged —it may be the 

 last straw in that direction. 



THE USE OK A " SMOKE-BOX." 



I have used, with excellent success, 

 a smoke-box invented by Mr. S. T. 

 Pettit. It is an inverted box, the size 

 of the top of the hive, and about three 

 inches deep, with a hole in one side 

 which can be closed with a button. 

 The cover of the hive, together with 

 the cloth or honey board, is removed, 

 and the box very quickly put in place. 

 The button is turned and the smoke 

 puffed into the hive. By smoking gen- 

 tlj', giving the bees time to keep ahead 

 of the smoke, the combs can be fairly 

 well cleared of bees; unless the queen 

 should have passed above the queen 

 excluder and filled the combs with 

 brood. This is the quickest method 

 that I know of for freeing the combs of 

 bees, but a mild smoke must be used 

 or the cappings will become tainted, 

 when a delicate palate might detect 

 the flavor. With strong-flavored honeys 

 this point need not be considered. The 

 best waj' that I know of is to smoke 

 the bees through the ventilator in the 

 super, which every super ought to have 

 at its back, doing this work in advance 

 upon the colony that we next expect to 

 manijiulate. This induces the bees to 

 fill themselves with hone}', when they 

 are easilj' dislodged from the combs, 

 and have little disposition to fight. 



GETTING BEES OKK THE COMBS. 



For bringing in the combs we use a 

 wheel barrow upon which we can set 

 two supers, one above the other. An 

 empty super is placed upon the barrow, 

 one man smokes the bees, while an- 

 other removes the cover, honej' board 

 and cloth, when the bees are well- 

 smoked, the smoker being handled with 

 a sort of sweeping movement that 

 drives the smoke among the combs. 

 The more skilled operative (and this 

 will be the one not using the smoker) 

 now removes the first comb; then both 

 remove combs, setting the first four on 



