AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



28 



brushing around the entrance, as the 

 bees march right under the front, on 

 the double-quick ; when you pull out the 

 wedges, and drop the hive nearly down. 



HOW TO FIND THE QUEEN. 



Now to find a queen — that is a bother. 

 One that leaves the combs every time, 

 as some of the blacks and hybrids will, we 

 " strain " them, and this is the way we do 

 it: 



Set the old hive (that has the queen 

 you want to find) off the stand ; place a 

 bottom-board on the stand, with a bo.x 

 just the size of the hive, and about 4 in- 

 ches deep, on the bottom-board. Give 

 plenty of entrance to this box, the same 

 as to the hive. On this box place a 

 queen-excluder, and on the excluder put 

 an empty hive; stop up all the entrance 

 to the empty hive above the excluder. 

 Now shake all the bees from the combs 

 down in front of the box with the empty 

 hive on it, and put the combs, after the 

 bees are off, into the empty hive. They 

 will enter the hive through the queen- 

 excluder to the brood-combs, and when 

 all, or nearly all, are up, you can lift off 

 the hive with the bees, and you will eas- 

 ily find the queen in the box below. It 

 is only an occasional one that thus 

 troubles the expert, but it is a sure and 

 comparatively easy method, especially 

 to one not accustomed to hunt out old 

 queens, and it is a sure catcher. 



Middletown, N. Y. 



Siiiol[ers— When to Use, Wliat to Bum. 



Written for " The Farme)-''s Advocate " 

 BY JOHN MYEBS. 



A good smoker is one of the essentials 

 in any bee-yard, and a poor one is one 

 of the greatest nuisances that a bee- 

 keeper can have. Just think of a per- 

 son in the midst of opening a colony, 

 and they begin to get rather angry, and 

 he makes a grab for the smoker and 

 commences to puff, puff, but there is not 

 draft enough to blow the smoke clear of 

 the nozzle of the smoker! Methinks 

 that under such circumstances a per- 

 son's thoughts are not very elevating. 



A good smoker should have a strong 

 draft — strong enough to blow the smoke 

 clear across the hive and down between 

 the frames to the bottom of the hive, if 

 needed. Now, don't think that I advo- 

 cate overdosing them with smoke, be- 

 cause I don't, as you will see further on, 

 but there are times when one needs a 

 good volume of smoke, and it is some- 



times necessary to blow it down between 

 the frames, especially when you want to 

 drive the bees out of an upper story. 



Another essential in a good smoker is 

 that it has a good, lively spring, so that 

 it will contract and enlarge quickly. I 

 like a coiled spring best; there is no 

 other kind of spring that will act so 

 quickly and at the same time take so 

 little pressure to close it. 



The leather on a smoker should not 

 be too heavy. I have often seen persons, 

 when buying a smoker, pick one with 

 the heaviest leather they could find, 

 thinking that it would last longer than 

 one with lighter leather, but in that 

 they were mistaken ; as long as the 

 leather is not soft and spongy, we need 

 not care how light it is ; the working of 

 the bellows causes the leather to crease, 

 and the heavy leather will crack much 

 sooner than the light. 



In purchasing a smoker, I do not buy 

 one that is too small ; the extra trouble 

 of filling so often will soon make up the 

 difference in price between a large and 

 a small one. 



HOW TO USE THE SMOKER. 



When and how shall we use them ? I 

 always use the smoker every time I open 

 a hive ; I think it pays ; you don't make 

 your bees so cross if you use a little 

 smoke when opening the hive, I once 

 heard a bee-keeper say he never used 

 smoke when he opened his hive ; I went 

 to visit him, and see the bees that never 

 needed smoke. They were the crossest 

 insects I have ever seen. When the 

 owner went to open a colony, he pro- 

 tected his head with a veil, and his 

 hands with gloves, and tied the bottom 

 of his pants close, so no bee could get in 

 there ; then he took off the cover of the 

 hive and started to manipulate the 

 frames. The bees fairly poured out at 

 him, and tried to sting him all over, but, 

 of course, he was thoroughly protected, 

 and they could not do him any harm ; 

 but woe to the cat, dog, man, or beast 

 that came within ten rods of him. I 

 went home satisfied that I did not want 

 any of the bees that needed no smoke. 



I have worked among my bees for half 

 a day without a veil, but I always use a 

 smoker. I don't advise working among 

 bees without a veil over the face; I 

 nearly always wear one. 



I never believe in overdosing bees 

 with smoke. I go to a hive that I want 

 to look into and take off the cover, then 

 start to raise the quilt at one corner; 

 as I continue to take it off, I gently puff 

 in a little smoke just to let them know 

 that I am around ; as a rule, scarcely a 



