Jn'.y, 1913. 



225 



[Amgrican Bee Joarnai] 



more being put on (June 20). The 

 first extracted honey of the season — 4 

 barrels — was taken off June 18. The 

 work is not clone by proxy, some of the 

 family look after it, with help of 

 course. 



Mr. C. P. Dadant, the senior, and his 

 wife, are on their way to Europe, and 

 will land long before this magazine 

 reaches all its readers. Their only re- 

 gret is to leave so much work for the 

 rest of the family to do. But to see the 

 bees of Switze'-land and Italy one must 

 be there at the proper season. 



After August, we will publish letters 

 from him regularly. 



Smoking Bees When Cellaring. — A 



man by the name of E. S. Miles advo- 

 cated smoking bees to quiet them when 

 putting them in the cellar. In the 

 American Bee Journal for May, I tried 

 to show him the error of his ways. In- 

 stead of being quieted down as a re- 

 spectable colony of bees should be 

 when properly smoked, he comes back 

 at me in the following fashion : 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111.^ 



Dear Friend : — I have just read your 

 comment on "Smoke in Bee-Cellars," 

 in the American Bee Journal for May. 

 I was expecting some novice to get 

 scared about smoke so used, but hardly, 

 expected a half century veteran to do 

 so; I suppose because I am myself so 

 confident of good results. 



" If, however, Mr. Miles has some 

 /•roo/' for his belief." Well! well! do 

 you work out any process or manipu- 

 lation until you feel absolutely sure 

 you are right, and then try to add 



farther proof ? Why, bless your heart, 

 I wintered bees for years before I ever 

 thought of smoke in that connection, 

 and had perfect success too, yet I grad- 

 ually found that I could .s-«rr time in 

 cellaring by using smoke, and I went 

 slowly until I ktiexv no injury resulted. 

 What you say about over-much smoke 

 in summer sounds plausible, and I do 

 not doubt it, but I do not find any 

 thing of the kind in cellaring. 



A great many colonies will go into 

 the cellar without smoke quietly 

 enough, but occasionally a colony, a 

 strong hybrid one for instance, gets on 

 its "fighting clothes," and the odor or 

 sound, or something, has a tendency to 

 arouse up others, besides the annoy- 

 ance and sometimes loss of bees com- 

 ing out. So I like smoke, and since it 

 does no harm, I use it on all. 



I have three covers, and I reallythink 

 I have the wintering problem solved. 

 If there were any damage in the smoke 

 I feel certain I would have observed it. 

 Try some on 2 or 3 colonies next win- 

 ter; that is, set them near the cellar, 

 and smoke them just enough to keep 

 them from offering offense, and do it 

 every few minutes while you carry the 

 others in. See then whether you can 

 detect any damage to those the next 

 spring. I said not to smoke enough to 

 run them off the combs, but enough to 

 keep them from coming out. 



I must disagree with some as to 

 smoke in spring. I don't use it then. 

 I tried it on one cellar this spring, but 

 it aroused the bees so much that I 

 closed that cave and went to another, 

 and set tiO or 70 colonies from it with- 

 out a bit of trouble ; then later when 

 the first cave had quieted down we 

 finished that without smoke, and they 

 were perfectly quiet. I have a smoker 

 handy outside, so in case I accidentally 

 jar a hive, I use a little smoke until I 

 get to the stand. 



So, Doctor, my only frooi' is like 

 'the proof of the pudding;" some say, 

 'chewing the string," wintering a large 

 number of colonies for 8 or 10 years 

 -without smoke, then using it more or 

 less for 8 or 10 years, and if there is a 

 darnage it is too slight for my obser- 

 vation. 



We are having lots of rain, and have 

 an immense stand of white clover. 



E. S. Miles. 



The fact that Mr. Miles has practised 

 smoking his bees for a number of 

 years and has seen no harm from it is 

 hardly proof that no harm occurred. 

 He says to try 2 or 3 colonies, smok- 

 ing them a number of times when 

 taking bees in, and see whether any 

 harm can be detected the ne.xt spring. 

 Now if he had said he had done that 

 thing and could see no harm, there 

 would be some proof in it. And if I 

 should try it, and found those colonies 

 the only dead ones the following 

 spring, he might consider it some 

 proof that smoke was not the most 

 wholesome thing for bees when being 

 cellared. It so happened that last fall, 

 when the men were carrying the bees 

 in cellar, the bottom-board of No. 75 

 was not fastened on, except by bee- 

 glue, and dropped off. The hive was 

 set down in the most gentle manner, 

 and I had to use quite a bit of smoke 

 in stapling on the bottom-board. I 

 did not note No. 75 at the time of tak- 

 ing out of cellar (I didn't have this dis- 

 cussion in mind at that time), but upon 

 looking at my record-book I find that 

 No. 75, at time of first overhauling, 

 was a good, strong colony. I hardly 

 see any good way of crawling out of 

 this affair, unless I say that this was 

 not a clear case of smoking, but had 

 the hammering added, and that the 

 hammering neutralized the smoking. 



Mr. Editor, let me whisper in your 

 ear that I may try smoking a few next 

 time, but please don't say anything to 

 that man Miles about it. I hate to 

 have people crowing over me. c. c. M. 



A " Bee Gu.vi." 



False Statements Concerning Comb 

 Honey. — The mention made in this 

 number of the American Bee Journal 

 of misstatements concerning the purity 

 of comb honey led us to look up some 

 former misrepresentations on this sub- 

 ject. In the Record-Herald, of Chicago, 

 of March 1.5, 1908, Marion Harland 

 spoke of honey-comb "'made by the 

 bees themselves instead of the artificial 

 combs of paraffine now manufactured." 

 To this statement we sent a polite but 

 firm protest, explaining that the bees 

 will not accept combs made of paraf- 

 fine, and that all comb honey on the 

 market is pure. This was very courte- 

 "^usly noticed with a correction in the 



