176 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



with a house apiary of nO or 100 swarms, with 

 everything in readiness, I can sit in the shade 

 and watch for and control all swarms with 

 little work and big pleasure. 



The holes over the hives are three inches 

 in diameter, and are covered with a slide on 

 the inside. They are intended to furnish 

 ventilation when work is being done on the 

 inside, as well as to give a place of escape to 

 all bees that get out of the hives while being 

 handled. Tlie door is in the end where your 

 humble servant is seen standing with uncov- 

 ered head, as though he feared that the pho- 

 tographer was going to " shoot " him, and 

 he wanted to fall with his beloved catcher 

 nearby. On the opposite side of the build- 

 ing is a window with a sliding sash of glass 

 and revolving wire screen which can be 

 opened or closed at pleasure. The ventila- 

 tor seen on the roof is to let all smoke out of 

 the building as quickly as possible, as wel) 

 as to be used as a chimney if a fire should be 

 needed in winter. I bought a small stove 

 last fall, expecting to use it to prevent damp- 

 ness, but everything remained perfectly dry 

 without the use of artificial heat. I attrib- 

 ute this result largely to the thorough venti- 

 lation. 



I expected annoyance from smoke, but 

 find that by throwing open the door, window 

 and ventilators, the inside remains nearly as 

 free from smoke as does the open air. 



You would be surprised to see how little 

 handling is really needed. I am also sur- 

 prised to see with what impunity I can han- 

 dle even the crossest hybrids in the house. 

 I am also pleased with the fact that not one- 

 fourth as many bees get out into the house 

 as I expected would get out. 



I use the small, double-brood-chamber 

 hives in the house, but, when ready, shall 

 use the hives mentioned last month in con- 

 nection with the revolving hive stand. I in- 

 vented them expressly for this purpose, but 

 cannot use them this year. I shall not con- 

 sider the house apiary fairly tested until 

 such hives have been used. 



I will say that the house apiary, even this 

 poorest of all springs here for bees, contains 

 twelve booming colonies. I think this is 

 largely explained by the fact that I had a 

 small feeder packed in the sawdust on top of 

 each hive, so that I could feed all the bees 

 in five minutes without disturbing a bee. I 

 gave each colony about half a pound of syr- 

 up daily for several weeks at an aggregate 

 cost of .'jO cts. per colony. 



I am greatly pleased with the house apiary 

 and shall continue the experiment until suc- 

 cess or failure is fairly established ; and 

 when I reach final conclusions based on ex- 

 haustive experiment, bee-keepers will be 

 told the truth. 



In the picture, my iron covered house for 

 storing and curing comb honey is visible at 

 the left, and a glimpse of the shop is seen 

 at the rear. 



FoEESTViLLE, Minn. .June 17, 1892. 



[An illustration and description of the re- 

 volving, nou-swarming hive - stand will be 

 given in the next Review.— Ed.] 



Rotten Elm and Excelsior as Fuel.— The 

 Abbott Cold Blast Smoker. 



E. B. LEAHY. 



TT IS generally 

 X conceded that 

 smoke is one of 

 the essential as- 

 sistants to success- 

 ful bee - keeping. 

 It may not be ab- 

 solutely necessary 

 to use smoke in 

 the manipulation 

 of bees, as I know 

 of bee - keepers 

 who actually do 

 not use smoke at all ; but time is a commod- 

 ity which, if carefully saved, and properly 

 used, amounts to dollars and cents ; and, as 

 smoke in the apiary is a great time saver, 

 it is necessary to the greatest success. 



As to fuel, I hardly know which is best, as 

 I have not used a great many kinds that 

 others have recommended very highly. When 

 I lived on a farm and had access to timlier 

 where rotten elm trees lay in such abundance 

 over the ground that a wagon load could be 

 picked up in a few moments, I then used 

 rotten elm and thought it was the best. I 

 have a strong partiality for it yet, and for a 

 number of years, after I moved to town I 

 would either send or go to the woods to get 

 rotten elm for my smoker fuel. I l)ecame 

 tired of this after a while, especially as there 

 usually is more or less dust and fine particles 

 in it, and after it is broken up there is an un- 

 sightly mess about the work-shop. This fuel 

 would have to be sifted, or the dust would in- 

 variably find its way out of the end of the 

 smoker all over the frames and combs. This 



