THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



I how- 1 

 time; 1 

 )st of.' 



and do harm instead of good. The idea how- 

 ever came to stay, at least for a long 

 but two colonies in a hive were all most w^^ 

 my hives were adapted to. And yet thisj 

 present year I am letting each colony go into 

 the winter in its own hive — not that I think 

 it is better so, but that I hope that not very 

 much will be lost by omitting the two and 

 two arrangement. They have honey enough 

 to winter singly this year, and some years 

 they do not. 



"Nov. 27th. Devised and made a sleeved veil, 

 with cord at waist, cheese-cloth body, mueliii 

 sleeves, and face of Brussels net. Elastics were 

 added afterward." 



A "sleeved veil" eh? When we feel a little 

 ashamed, how handy it is to use soft names. 

 After awhile I got down level on the veraci- 

 ties and could call it unblushingly my "ku — 

 klux robe." And when the cheese-cloth 

 body proved too slazy for use I promptly 

 made it a new body of firmer cotton cloth. 

 For, dear brethern, I had rather put on a 

 ku— klux robe three times than be dethron- 

 ed by my little subjects even one time. 

 At least I want the means at hand where- 

 by I can hold the reins of power at all haz- 

 ards. 



But the incongruity of the thing! A sov- 

 ereign making himself over into a walking 

 bed-tick! What lack of perception of the 

 fitness of things! What flavor of cowardice! 

 Well, a sense of congruity, and a perception 

 of the fitness of things are good possessions 

 to have; but, say, aren't they a little scarce 

 among the public? Let me digress and tell 

 a story. I send for picture - cards for my 

 Sunday - School occasionally . Children 

 have an insatiable appetite for pretty cards; 

 and its nice to give a child a pretty picture, 

 matched by a holy text. I have often been 

 pained, and almost puzzled at the total lack 

 of a sense of congruity in the setting of 

 these pictures and texts — and this too on the 

 part of artists who can do and do do very nice 

 work. In my last lot one kind shows a 

 bright girl aiming a snowball at somebody; 

 and the text is " Pray without ceasing. " 

 Snowballs and pretty girls are dangerous 

 things it would seem, and when they come 

 skipping around a fellow he had best betake 

 himself to his devotions. If the general 

 public can tolerate such incongruities in 

 greater matters I guess they can tolerate my 

 robe — if I only wear it when nobody's look- 

 ing. 



In practical work I find about three legit- 

 imate places for the ku - klux robe to come 



in. Two of them are in swarming time. 

 When several swarms mix together in one 

 great mass they sometimes become terribly 

 infuriated, enough so to assault one by hun- 

 dreds, and crawl right into all laps and pock- 

 ets of garments. I for one want the means 

 at hand of holding up my face to them. I 

 wish to go ahead and put them at rights at 

 once, and without being made a pin - cush- 

 ing of either. Another occasion for the robe 

 is when hiving swarms at eventide. This I 

 suppose most of you seldom do, but I very 

 often. When I have several swarms to take 

 from pits and hive the same eve there is lia- 

 bility to get a little belated. Bees under 

 such circumstances are good natured usually ; 

 but the moment it gets just a little too dark 

 they commence to alight on their keeper by 

 hundreds, and almost by thousands. • In or- 

 dinary rig it won't do to allow this; but pro- 

 perly robed one can in finishing brush them 

 off his trousers, and strip the rest of them 

 off over his head with the robe. But the 

 principal use is the November service for 

 which it was originally devised — packing 

 bees two colonies in a hive in cold weather. 

 Bees alighting on the operator in the course 

 of this work directly become too much 

 chilled to take wing again, and crawl in 

 search of a warm place. Although they have 

 no evil intents to begin with, the warm places 

 are prone to get considerably warmer when 

 a few dozen of them get within. With the 

 robe I can work on half a day in comfort, 

 without it the time would be passed in 

 constant worry and petty torment. 

 RiOHABDS, Ohio. Nov. 1, 1892. 



Bee-Keepers' Review. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSOfl, Ed. & Prop. 



Terms : — $1.00 a year in advance Two copies, 

 $1.90 ; three for $2.70 : five for$+.<'0 j ten, or more, 

 70 cents each, ^p" The Review is stopped at 

 the expiration of the time paid for. 



FLINT, MICHIGAN. NOV. 10. 1892. 



Minnesota Bee-Keepees will hold their 

 fourth annual convention at Minneapolis, 

 January 12, 13, 24. 



The Pbogbessive Bee-Keepek will make 

 its appearance January 1, greatly improved, 

 so Bro. Quigley writes me. Good. 



