THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



207 



I hHve never been troubled by sparks 

 drawiuf^ back into the bellows and burniuf^ 

 it as some have reported. The main im- 

 provement would be to increase the force 

 and volume of the draft and do away with 

 the screen at the entrance of bellows. By 

 the way, I have noticed (hat the last smoker 

 from Mr. Bingham has no screen nor any 

 provision for one. 



How little smoke is necessary when the 

 hives open without jar and the frames can 

 be easily removed for examination. I have 

 clipped many queens without using a puff of 

 smoke, yet a very little is best. With black 

 bees great care must be exercised in the use 

 of smoke to prevent running and boiling. No 

 other race that I have handled are thus 

 effected by smoke; an excessive amount of 

 smoke does not seem to produce much effect 

 upon the Italians or Carniolans, but often 

 too large an application upon the Syrian race 

 will increase rather than allay their anger. 



The necessity for using smoke in excess at 

 the time of removing honey from the hives 

 is past. For this purpose the bee escape 

 ranks, in my opinion, as equal in impor- 

 tance to the queen excluder or the queen 

 cage or any other indispensable article of 

 the apiary. I would never use a bit of 

 smoke in a cellar filled with bees. Every 

 hive will be effected by it. Also never smoke 

 a colony that is being robbed, and lastly 

 never smoke yourself. 



Ag'l Col., Mich. .July 2, 1892. 



Apicultural Experiments— To be Conclusive 



They must be Carefully Conducted 



Upon a Large Scale. 



K. G. AIKIN. 



¥OURreaders 

 have now had 

 a description of 

 the d e q u e e n i ng 

 system as we prac- 

 tice it. The sys- 

 tem is no child's 

 play. Success will 

 come only to those 

 who attend strictly 

 t') business. Even 

 with the closest at- 

 tention to business 

 a beginner should not attempt this system, 



except with a few colonies, until he knows 

 he understands what is necessary to success. 



This leads me now to offer some thoughts 

 on "Apicultural Experiments." I quote 

 this title because Mr. Elwood and Prof. 

 Cook have already written somewhat at 

 length on the subject in Gleanings. I have 

 had in mind for several months the idea of 

 writtiug some thoughts on this subject. Mr. 

 Elwood and Prof. Cook have given more 

 general thoughts, B. Taylor, too, has gotten 

 ahead of me in the June Review. Bro. T., 

 I will try and give you some thoughts that 

 possibly may help you. 



Some months ago I had some correspond- 

 ence with J. H. Larrabee of the Agricultural 

 College, Mich., in regard to trying some 

 experiments. He said he had already so 

 much to do he could not undertake what 1 

 had outlined for him. I also asked Prof. C. 

 P. Gillette of the Colorado Agricultural Col- 

 lege, (located in this county) to try the same. 

 He, too, had not the facilities to do the work 

 as it should be done. Perhaps if we moved 

 in the matter as we should, we could get 

 more done for us by both the State an 

 general government. If the " 300,000 bee- 

 keepers " would each contribute .50 cents, we 

 would have the sum of .$150,000, which if 

 rightly used would accomplish more in 

 conducting experiments than three or four 

 times that amount used by private enterprise 

 scattered here and there, with inadequate 

 and limited facilities, as nearly all private 

 enterprise must necessarily be. Suppose 

 now I should undertake by experiment to 

 determine which was the more profitable, 

 dequeening, or natural swarming. The 

 easiest way to determine the matter would 

 be to take an apiary of 100 or more colonies, 

 then run half by one system and half by the 

 other; close judgment would be necessary 

 when dividing or setting apart the stock for 

 each division. If the test is to be anything 

 like a true test, I should know the exact 

 condition of each colony at all times. The 

 old and poor queens, if any, should be equally 

 divided, and I must constantly watch the 

 progress in brood rearing in each division. 

 I suggested to Mr. Larrabee to select two 

 colonies exactly alike, managing <^e by de- 

 queening, the other by swarming; well, he 

 shot right back at me the questions " can 

 you tell when two colonies are exactly alike" 

 and "have you not seen two colonies ap- 

 parently alike yet give altogether different 

 results?" 



