204 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



lieve that one will get just as much 

 though by using full sheets, and then 

 the honey is all or nearly all fancy. 



WILL USE FULL SHEETS IN SECTIONS. 



I expect in the future to use full 

 sheets entirely, that is, after Dr. Mil- 

 ler's fashion, with a five-eighths inch 

 bottom starter, and a sheet reaching to 

 within one-eighth of an inch of the bot- 

 tom starter from the top. 



I have been trying them out on a 

 small scale the past two or three years, 

 and my experience has been that on the 

 extra amount of honey you get alone it 

 pays for the extra expense. Bees will 

 go onto these full sheets much quicker 

 than starts and will make much better 

 work of it when they do get started. At 

 least this has been my experience. 



SMOKER FUEL. 



Friend Hutchinson, I notice in Ad- 

 vanced Bee Culture you advocate the 

 use of coal oil or kerosene for lighting 

 the smoker. This is not the first time 

 I have seen this advocated and I have 

 ■often wondered at it. Your experience 

 with the use of it must have been, dif- 

 ferent from mine, for I could not abide 



it in my smoker for a minute. Doesn't 

 it stink your smoker up frightfully? It 

 did mine the only time I ever tried to 

 use it, and not only the smoker but the 

 honey where I attempted to use it was 

 tainted with the coal oil smell. Worse 

 yet, I could never succeed in getting 

 that smell out of the smoker, and finally 

 threw it away in disgust. 



Certainly you people who advocate 

 the use of it could not have had this 

 experience or you would not use it. 

 Will you please explain why the differ- 

 ence? 



Barryton, Alich. 



[Lighting a smoker with oil is some- 

 thing I have never tried. Don't believe 

 I would like it. Whenever I use a 

 smoker, or rather, get through using it, 

 I plug up the nozzle with a bit of green 

 grass. This puts the fire out, and leaves 

 a good supply of charcoal in the smoker 

 for next using. I almost always use 

 hard wood for fuel. When ready to 

 use again. I dump the contents of the 

 smoker on the ground, or in a pan ; put 

 in a fair sized piece of newspaper in 

 the smoker, light it, let it get to burn- 

 ing nicely, then throw in the charcoal a 

 few pieces at a time, and finally fill up 

 with wood. The whole operation takes 

 about as much time as it does to write 

 this footnote.] 



A Short Method of Introducing Queens. 



F. L. POLLOCK 



'^^ HE best, quickest and safest mode 

 C^_/ of introducing queens is by the 

 use of tobacco smoke. It has 

 long been advocated by the editor of the 

 Review, and it is hard to say why so 

 little has been heard of it lately, and 

 so much of other methods. 



The colony had '^est be dequeened 

 about noon. About twilight light a 

 small, hot fire in your smoker and put 

 in about the amount of two pipefuls of 

 smoking tobacco — the fine cut or long 

 cut used for cigarettes is best, as it 

 burns most freely. When a strong nico- 

 tine odor comes out of the smoker, blow 

 two or three heavy puffs into the hive 



entrance; wait two minutes and open 

 the hive. Drive the bees down with 

 more tobacco smoke and let the queen 

 run right down on the combs, follow- 

 ing her with another puff. Close the 

 hive quickly. The editor recommends 

 another slight smoking in the course of 

 half an hour, but I have never been able 

 to see that this made any difference, 

 and in general the less disturbance after 

 the queen is introduced the better. 



A modification of this plan, making it 

 even safer yet, is, instead of dequeening 

 the hive, to take off a nucleus of three 

 frames of bees and brood, but not the 

 queen. Place this nucleus close beside 



