1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



173 



PREVENTION OF SWARMING BY THE USE 

 OF THE EXTRACTOR. 



Without doubt, the greatest reason for 

 swarming is that the bees have got their 

 hive full of honey, and there is no more 

 room for them to labor to advantage ; ac- 

 cordingly queen cells are started, and other 

 preparations made, and they get, as we say, 

 the swarming fever. Now, if their honey is 

 taken away, and more room given them, be- 

 fore they have begun to feel cramped for 

 room, they will seldom get this swarming 

 fever. This room may be given by taking 

 out combs tilled with sealed honey, and 

 substituting empty combs or frames of fdn., 

 or it may be done by extracting the honey. 

 This latter plan, I believe is most effectual, 

 for almost every drop of the honey can be 

 taken away by extracting. We extract from 

 the brood combs as well as from the rest, 

 and this can be done without any injury to 

 the brood, if we are careful not to turn so 

 fast as to throw out that which is unsealed. 

 I would only do this, however, in extreme 

 cases, where the bees will not work, and are 

 determined to swarm. The honey around 

 the brood is generally needed there, and 

 would better not be removed. It should be 

 remembered that this remedy to prevent 

 swarming is not infallible, and I do not 

 know that any one is, at all times. I have 

 known a swarm to issue the day after ex- 

 tracting all the honey I could get from the 

 hive, but they had probably got the swarm- 

 ing fever before any extracting was done. 

 At another time, the bees swarmed while I 

 was extracting their honey. 



HOW TO MAKE A COLD BLAST SMOKER. 



Both kinds are made of two sizes. The 

 boards for the bellows of the common size 

 are I by 5£ inches ; for the large size, 5 by 

 inches. The thickness is about f , or as thick 

 as you can plane them up nicely when two 

 are got out of an inch board. The lumber 

 usually preferred is basswood, because it is 

 light, and not apt to split. Where smokers 

 are to be made by the quantity, I would cut 

 the inch boards into lengths of Gor8 ft., split 

 them up 4 or 5 in. wide, as the case may be, 

 split them edgewise, and plane the pieces on 

 both sides. We put them in bundles pre- 

 cisely as we do the stuff for our section 

 boxes, using the same iron clamps. Before 

 clamping them, however, a groove is to be 

 ploughed in half of the boards, to hold the 

 spring for opening the bellows. Thisgroove 

 is exactly in the middle, I in. wide and 1-16 

 in. deep. When clamped, bolts are to be cut 



off (as in making sections) with a saw large 

 enough to go through. If no such saw is at 

 hand, they may be cut in from each side. 

 After the bolts are cut, a corner is to be 

 taken off as shown in the cut below. 



BOARDS FOP. SMOKER BELLOAVS. 



This corner is taken off, that we may have 

 the leather all bulge outward, when the 

 boards are closed together; that is, we wish 

 the whole to be so made that the boards may 

 be pressed tight against each other, expell- 

 ing every bit of the air, the spring being 

 made to lie in a groove for this purpose. 

 When the corners of the bolts are off, the 

 whole bolt is to be nicely sand-papered, and 

 the edges of the boards planed, so that each 

 board is finished nicely when taken out of 

 the clamp. Just half of the boards are to 

 have an inch hole bored in them, to put in 

 the blast tube, and the other half are to have 

 f holes for the two valves, to admit air. By 

 far the cheapest way to bore these holes is 

 while the boards are clamped together. 

 Have a long bit that will bore clean and 

 smooth, and decide, by measuring, when it 

 is through just half the boards. In this way, 

 it takes but little time to get the boards 

 ready for a thousand smokers, for they are 

 never handled singly at all. 



For the leather, you want some soft, 

 smooth, sheep skin, and the piece needed 

 for the medium size is 19 in. long, by 2i 

 wide, in the middle, and gradually tapers to 

 only I in. in width, at each end. For the 

 large bellows, the length is 23 in., the width, 

 in the middle, 3 in., and i at the ends. You 

 will also want some strips i in. wide, and as 

 long as these pieces, for a binding, when the 

 leather is tacked to the boards. The whole 

 of the leather for a smoker should not cost to 

 exceed 10c, for we can get a whole piece 

 large enough to make 8 or 10 smokers for 

 only £0c. To have the leather bulge out- 

 ward, as I have before explained, it should 

 be stretched in the middle, and pressed out- 

 ward before being tacked on, and when the 

 bellows isTirst closed, the leather must lie 

 pulled out; when once it gets the habit of 

 folding right, it will do so ever afterward. 

 Besides the tacks, the leather should be 

 fastened to the wood with glue, to get an air 

 tight joint. 



The valves are simply pieces of softleather 

 tacked over the holes ; for a f hole, you want 



