24 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



bee will take wing ; they will sit quietly 

 on their combs until I am through look- 

 ing at them. If I happen to let a comb 

 slip or jar against the hive, I will be apt 

 to need the smoker again. In the above 

 I am supposing that they are Italians 

 (the only kind I keep) ; if the bees are 

 blacks, they will be more irritable. 



I might tell how to use the smoker in 

 driving bees out of section-cases and 

 upper stories, but, since the introduction 

 of the Porter bee-escape, this method is 

 very little practiced. The escape does 

 the business so quickly, and with so 

 little trouble, that I think very few bee- 

 keepers will go back to using smoke for 

 clearing the supers. 



FUEL TO BE USED IN THE SMOKER. 



I always use dry planer-shavings — not 

 those from a large planer used in dress- 

 ing lumber — those are too coarse — but 

 those from a buzz planer or moulding 

 machine are just right ; put a few in the 

 bottom of the smoker, then light a 

 match and throw it in on them ; and 

 after the shavings gets a-going, com- 

 mence working the bellows and get the 

 shavings to become thoroughly heated 

 through ; now fill up the smoker with 

 more shavings, and pack them as you 

 fill ; keep puffing the bellows while you 

 are filling, and when you have it filled, 

 place a few bench shavings — those made 

 with an ordinary hand-plane — on top, to 

 keep the small shavings from being 

 blown through the nozzle ; you are now 

 ready to go to work. 



There are other things that make 

 good smoker fuel — such as rags, rotten 

 wood, carpet felt, cedar bark, etc., but, 

 after trying all of them, I like the shav- 

 ings best. If you were to ask Mr. Wm. 

 McEvoy, Foul Brood Inspector, what 

 were the three best articles for smoker 

 fuel, he would be likely to say : First, 

 cedar-bark ; second, cedar-bark, and 

 third, cedar-bark, as there is nothing, in 

 his opinion, like dry cedar-bark for 

 smoker fuel. Well, cedar-bark, if well 

 dried, is very good, but I like pine 

 planer shavings a little better. 



The late Mr. Cornell, at one of our 

 association meetings, told me the best 

 article he had ever tried for smoker fuel 

 was carpet-felt — that is, the felt paper 

 used for putting under carpets. The 

 way he used it was to roll up a piece 

 large enough to fill the smoker, then 

 light the lower end and shove it into the 

 smoker. lie said it would last a long 

 time, and would not go out until it was 

 all consumed. I have not tried it, but 

 mean to do so this season. 



Stratford, Out. 



Diviling Colonies at Swarmini-Time. 



Mead at the Southeastern. Kansas Cmiventioti 

 BY J. C. BALCH. 



As the swarming season approaches, 

 there are a good many bee-keepers in a 

 small way that have a few colonies of 

 bees. They say, " I can't stay at home 

 to watch the bees, and if they swarm 

 when I am away, they will go off. If I 

 could only make them swarm when I am 

 ready to take care of them, it would be 

 such a relief to my mind." 



To all such I would say, it can be 

 done; all that is necessary is to have your 

 bees in movable-frame hives. I don't 

 mean hives with some kind of frames in 

 them', and the combs built crosswise of 

 them, but frames with the combs built 

 straight in every one, so that you can 

 take out each and any frame that you 

 please, at any time that you may wish. 

 Then if you are going to be away from 

 home, or have to be out on the farm 

 away from the bees, you can look 

 through the hive for queen-cells, once 

 each week, and if there are none, yon 

 need have no fear of their swarming for 

 a week. But when you find queen-cells 

 on several combs, with larvcB in them, 

 you may be sure they will swarm in a 

 few days, if left alone ; and now is the 

 time to divide them. 



Get the new hive with foundation or 

 starters in each frame, and bring it to 

 the colony to be divided. Then take out 

 the combs and search carefully until you 

 find the queen. Place the comb she is 

 on in the new hive, near the center with 

 one other comb containing some honey, 

 and a frame with foundation between 

 tbem ; then put the two frames taken 

 from the new hive into the old one on 

 the outside of the combs next to the 

 wall of the hive, and move the old col- 

 ony to some other location, a rod or 

 more away, and put the new hive with 

 the queen and two frames of combs 

 where the old one stood. 



Do this any time in the forenoon of a 

 warm day, and the bees will divide 

 themselves. Before night all the bees 

 that would have gone with the swarm 

 will have gone back to the old queen. 



Then in six or seven days you can 

 open the old hive and cut out all the 

 queen-cells but two of the largest, one 

 of which will hatch in a few days, and 

 she will destroy the other. When the 

 young queen begins to lay, move those 

 two outside empty frames to near the 

 center of the hive, and they will be filled 

 with nice worker-combs. If you put 



