264 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Tobacco smoke for the purpose of 

 handling bees should be used very spar- 

 ingly and carefully. It is hardly safe to 

 advise beginners to use it, for its effect is 

 to stupefy the whole colony; and if the 

 fumes ar? administered during the day 

 there will be an hour or two hours, per- 

 haps, when the bees, slightly intoxicated, 

 would put up no defense whatever at the 

 entrances. If during the robbing season, 

 the}- would allow robbers to come right 

 in pellmell and help thcmiselves; hence 

 tobacco smoke is recommended for use 

 only at night But even then I suspect 

 the introduction could be accomplished 

 almost as well without the weed. The 

 best time to introduce queens is tOvvard 

 night. We once relensed two dozen 

 queens right among the bees, and evrry 

 one was accepted. The queens in tliis 

 case were some that came through the 

 mails badlv daubed, and reached us just 

 at nightfall. Nothing remained but to 

 let the queens run loose and take their 

 chances, and we were very greatly sur- 

 prised the next morning to find all of 

 them apparently nicely accepted. 



In peculiarly stubborn cases tobacco 

 smoke may be used, especially where the 

 bees are determined to ball the queen, 

 anfl we have positive evidence that the 

 bees are queenless I have made a col- 

 onv so "beastlv drunk" (pardon the ex- 

 pression ) that when the bees finally re- 

 covered from their spree they accepted 

 the queen, when befoie that they would 

 ball her on sight. 



Our practice now is to use smoke only 

 during fair titne, for, unfortunately, our 

 county fairgrounds are within an eighth 

 of a mile of our apairy; and during the 

 time the stands are iiiaking taffv, selling 

 watermelons, lemonade, and the like, 

 our bees woidd prove to be a great nui- 

 sance unless we w-ent around to all the 

 hives and gave a smudging of tobacco 

 smoke. This is done in the morning, 

 about S:oo o'clock, and another dose is 

 given about r :f>o o'clock. Half a dozen 

 puffs of smoke are blown in at the entran- 

 ces, all over the apiary. If the colonies 

 are a// stuiiefied there will be no danger 

 from robbing. This stnudging keeps the 

 bees at home. But care should be exer- 

 cised, as there is dantjer of overdoing it, 

 and also danger of not doing r;/^>«i,'// of it; 

 for if they have once got a taste of the 

 sweets over at the fairgrounds it takes a 

 gi eat deal of stupefying to keep them at 

 home. 



The point that queens are more likely 

 to be accepted when released at night is 

 well taken. The queens being daubed 



with honey may have had soiuething to 

 do with the success. Laying all these 

 points aside, let me ask if any one has 

 lost a queen when using tobacco smoke? 



BELGIAN HARES. 



Beware of the Fairy Tales ReKarding the 

 Profits to he Made in Tlieir Production. 



On this subject of Belgian hares the 

 Review has published an article bj' Prof. 

 Cook, also one by the president of the 

 Jh'lint Belgian Hare Association, Dr. Bela 

 Cogshall. Both of these articles have 

 shown up the industry in a very favora- 

 ble light. In this issue there is a short 

 article by Mr. H. D. Biirrell, in which he 

 does not consider the business in the light 

 of a bonanza. I ceriainly wish to show 

 up .the business in its true ligiit, and, in 

 looking over the Country Gentleman the 

 other day I came across an article by Mr. 

 T. F. McGrew, of New York city, in 

 which the somber side of the business is 

 certainly painted in dark enough hue. It 

 reads as follows: — 



A few 3'ears since, I predicted that the 

 broiler-duck business was being overdone 

 when considered from the stan(l])oint 

 of making money. It is true that those 

 who are best established do and will 

 make a profit at the duck-raising busi- 

 ness; but the margin is too small to en- 

 tice those who fully understand its con- 

 ditions to embark in the enterprise in the 

 hope of making a fortune. It is just the 

 same with the Belgian hare luror. The 

 journals are full of wilil statements of 

 many hundred dollars being paid for 

 single s]iecimens, and that thousands of 

 dollars are going to England to secure 

 the be^t that can be found, and we are 

 told of the great profits to be made in 

 producing them for meat food. 



I have produced many hundred rabbits 

 of the LopKar and Dutch breeds; none 

 could be more delicite than the Dutch 

 variety, and the Lop-Ear is one of our 

 very largest. I had the most approved 

 hutch svstem that could be built, and I 

 sold my product all over the countrj' as 

 fancy stock; but my experience was that 

 those kept in hutches did not have the 



