THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



273 



A Novel Method of Holding the Smoker 

 Which Leaves the Hands Free. 



J. J. WILDER. 



mHE smoker is 

 T the bee keep- 

 er's most useful 

 instrument, and 

 being very awk- 

 ward in construc- 

 tion is unhandy; 

 and often no little 

 valuable time is 

 lost in trying- to 

 keep up with this 

 instrument while 

 about the apiary work. It is so easy to 

 get misplaced about a hive when our 

 mind is on something else; and often, 

 although it is set to our back or some 

 out-of-the-way place about the hives 

 while manipulating the frames, yet, when 

 we reach for it, it is out of the way and 

 we have to take our eyes off our work, 

 and look around for it, before we can 

 put our hands on it. Not only is it often 

 out of the way, but often it is carelessly 

 placed in the way, on top of the frames, 

 or about our feet, and is knocked over 

 and its fuel spilt or shook up, or its snout 

 filled with earth. 



The extent of our business, and the 

 scarcity of labor, forces us to resort to 

 every means possible to save time. We 

 never have time to sit down or rest 

 ourselves while manipulating frames, and 

 the accompanying illustration shows how 

 we hold our smoker while at apiary-work. 

 As soon as a hive is approached, the smok- 

 er is in readiness, and the snout turned 

 just right to send smoke over the frames 

 by just touching the bellows. The right 

 hand raises the cover, the left hand 

 touches the bellows and continues the 

 smoke until the cover is placed beside the 

 hive out of the way. By this time the 

 bees are usually subdued enough to be- 

 gin frame-manipulation; if not, the left 

 hand continues to touch the bellows, for 



the snout is turned towards the resisting 

 bees before the hand touches the bellows. 

 Our hives are placed on single stands, 

 six and eight inches high, and we can 

 thus keep the smoker conveniently placed 

 while working in the second stories. 

 While working in the supers several 



stories high I keep it thus placed, and I 

 reach for it when it is needed, and it is 

 always convenient. 



If hives, frames, or supers are to be 

 carried from one hive or location to 

 another, the smoker is kept in the same 



