FEBRUARY 1, 1913 



79 



General Correspondence 



THE FUN THE PIONEERS HAD IN INVENTING 

 NEW FIXTURES 



A Bee-smoker Made of a Pan of Coals 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER 



How I'd like to go back and begin bee- 

 keeping all over again with the facilities 

 of the present day! Back yonder in 1861 

 the bill of fare was rather meager — no ex- 

 tractor, no smoker, no sections, no comb 

 foundation, no excluder, and almost no lit- 

 erature. Movable combs had been invented, 

 but I knew nothing about them. The Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal was started that year, but 

 1 didn't know of it. And yet I don't know. 

 You who start in with all these things don't 

 have the same pleasure I had in learning 

 about each one as a new improvement. 

 And then the lots of new plans and kinks 

 that have been coming up all the time! 



One thing, however, I'd like to have back 

 again. I'd like to have honey keeping all 

 the while at the same price as butter. It 

 would seem pretty good now to have honey 

 selling at 30 or 40 cents a pound. Another 

 good thing of those bygone days was the 

 delight of studying up some new plan or 

 implement, lying awake at night thinking- 

 it over. Honey may never catch up with 

 butter again in price, but the fun of study- 

 ing up new thing's is just as great now as 

 it was back j-onder. In any given case 

 there is always the zest that is given to it 

 by the uncertainty as to what the bees will 

 do with it when it is submitted to them. 

 Even after being submitted to them there 

 is the uncertainty as to whether they will 

 do exactly the same next time, when condi- 

 tions may be a trifle different. 



The first surplus honey I produced was 

 just as good to eat as any I produce now — 

 just as white, but not so regiilar. A box 

 with a capacity of five or six pounds, with 

 a i^ane of glass on two opposite sides, was 

 placed along with three others on top of a 

 box hive, with a cover telescoping over it. 

 Such a box, when filled, seemed just as 

 ] leasing a sight as the finest sections do 

 nowadays. By way of something extra I 

 had some boxes with four glass sides and 

 wooden posts at the corners. The bees 

 hiult comb in these boxes at their own sweet 

 will except for the j^ersuasion of a few 

 pieces of comb fastened to the top of the 

 box. If one or all of these starters fell to 

 the bottom, the bees were not greatly dis- 

 concerted. They simply built from the 

 bottom up. 



This was quite in advance of what some 



others were doing, whose only way to se- 

 cure surplus Avas to brimstone a colony, and 

 then dig out as well as might be the honey 

 mixed with j^ollen and dead bees. The 

 heaviest and the lightest skeps were " taken 

 up," the heaviest because they had the most 

 honey, and the lightest because tliey would 

 die in winter anyhow. 



The first sections were somewhat crude. 

 They were in four pieces, and the top piece 

 had in it a saw-kerf to receive the founda- 

 tion. This top piece was partly split apart, 

 and then brought together again after the 

 insertion of the foundation. I didn't make 

 very good work of it, and wanted to learn 

 how to do it better. I wrote to A. I. Root, 

 telling him exactlj' how I put in the foun- 

 dation, making a sketch of it, and asking, 

 him how I should do it. I think I had no 

 intention of having my letter published — 

 only to have the jjroper instruction given 

 in Gleanings, a publication that I think at 

 that time was gotten out by the aid of a 

 windmill. Promptly' came back a round 

 sum in payment for the letter, which was 

 published in full; but not a word was given 

 as to how the work should be better done ! 

 I well remember my first visit to Medina. 

 I reached it by stage, there being no rail- 

 road then. Wouldn't a stage coach have a 

 busy time of it now, carrying out all the 

 stuff shipped away by The A. I. Root Co. ! 

 On that visit I had the honor of showing 

 A. I. Root an inii^roved method of smoldng 

 bees. Yes, you might hardly believe that 

 the man who has sent out so many smokers 

 would learn from me any thing in that line, 

 but he did. I don't remember what plan 

 he was then using. I don't think that, at 

 that time, he smoked them with tobacco as 

 some others did, but the plan I showed him 

 was to have ashes and burning coals in an 

 old tin pan. He was much pleased with the 

 improvement, and I had hardly left the 

 town when he put it in practice, with the 

 result that he jeopardized if he did not burn 

 up a colony by setting fire to the sawdust 

 that surrounded the hive. 



A little later I tried to improve on this. 

 I had a close-fitting cover on a kettle con- 

 taining burning coals and brands, and at- 

 tached to the cover were two small rubber 

 tubes. I blew into one of them, and with 

 the other directed the smoke upon the bees. 

 It smoked them all right, only it didn't hold 

 fire well unless I " blowed " all the time. 



]\Iy ! my ! my ! what changes there have 

 been. What improvements! Will there be 

 any more, I wonder? A few years ago a 

 prominent writer said we were not to ex- 



