76 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



March 



sling it oii,t. You lose time waiting for 

 the bees to seal it; besides it slings out 

 so easily when it's thin, too; and here 

 again is another important saving of 

 time. Time is saved in cutting of the 

 caps and twisting the extractor. Lots 

 of people don't know the difference 

 between thick and thin honey, and you 

 can sell it to them. If it sours before 

 you can find a customer who don't 

 know the difference, you can make it 

 into vinegar. You will have saved 

 enough time to half pay the cost of 

 production, anyway; and as it will be 

 already sour, you will save almost 

 enough time in waiting for it to finish 

 up souring into good vinegar to cover 

 the other half, and the result will be 

 clear profit. I expect Old John Hard- 

 scrabble will attempt to make it appear 

 that 'taint so, and maybe will liken 

 my logic to the Irishman who went ,to 

 buy a stove. The dealer strongly re- 

 comtnended a certain stove, saying, "If 

 you take that stove, you'll save half 

 your wood." "I will?" says Pat, "then 

 be jabbers. I'll take Iw'o av em, and 

 save all the wood." The reader can 

 figure it for himself. Figures don't lie. 

 It don't pay to be too exact and par- 

 ticular, if you figure your time as you 

 ought to. "Time is money." Don't 

 forget that wisest of proverbs. Cut it 

 out of this page, my dear young reader, 

 and paste if- m that new bee hat — when 

 you have time — and make a break for 

 the apiary. If you are to accomplish 

 anything in this busy world you will 

 not have wasted time in hunting up old 

 sacks, rotten wood, saltpeter-rags or 

 any such luxuries for smoker fuel. 

 Grab a wisp of grass or catnip (I 

 haven't got over that catnip fever yet) 

 as you run and stuff it into the smoker 

 upon arrival. The bees don't care what 

 kind of fuel you use, nor whether it 

 burns well or not. That's all bosh. 

 Then, the time you will spend in trying 

 to light it. will put you in proper hu- 

 mor for rapid work when you do get 

 s.tarted, so if a lid fails to respond to 

 your gentle touch when ready to op- 

 erate on a hive, it will be promptly 

 kicked off in true Coggshall style, and 

 your business will be in plain view. 

 The grass-stalks and catnip stems (cat- 

 nip again, by Jove.) which stick out all 

 round the nozzle of the smoker will 

 help to keep i,t propped up in proper 

 position. If the nozzle keeps coming 



off, you can write to the editor of The 

 American Bee-Keeper and give the 

 manufacturer general fits. Tell every- 

 body that the smoker is '"buncomb. " 

 that it is made only to sell, no,t to use. 

 This will be found a great relief when 

 the strain of modern apicultural meth- 

 ods is beginning to tell upon your ner- 

 vous system. The smoker will be out 

 again by this ,time. but you can try 

 again to light it. and the few stings, 

 more or less, which will probably be 

 administered while doing so. will have 

 no bad effect. In fact, they will have 

 much the same effect as "a few fleas" 

 on a dog; they will keep you from 

 brooding over the catnip fields that 

 you haven't got. If, perchance, you 

 should get a couple or three etxra 

 sharp ^tings — say, under the thumb- 

 nail or on the end of the nose — ^and 

 drop a comb of honey on the corner 

 of the hive, while the smoker is out, 

 don't worry because some one has said 

 you should take more time and be care- 

 ful. You are still ahead of the game, 

 by reason of the tiine to your credit, 

 and the bees will lick up all the honey 

 again and pu,t it back in the hive. The 

 comb, when melted up, is worth 30 

 cents a pound, and you will sooner 

 get your cash out of it. What if the 

 colony should be robbed out? Probab- 

 ly this set of combs is just what you 

 need for a new swarm or to upper- 

 story another colonv tha,t would oth- 

 erwise have had to build its combs. 



And the idea of people using arti- 

 ficial cell-cups to rear queens. Think 

 of the time if takes to graft the cells; 

 and the time it takes to make the cups 

 is simply a wanton waste of God-given 

 time, for which you will be held ac- 

 countable. Don't think of it — not for 

 a moment — it's wjcked. Get the cells 

 started at once. Think of ,the time 

 that the cells might be maturing if you 

 hadn't stopped to graft them. Compute 

 the saving of time in the ha,tching 

 of the batch, if only you had used na- 

 tural cups or cells already stocked. 

 Bear in mind, my dear young reader, 

 that the three and a half minutes that 

 would thus get past you, go in,to the 

 eternal beyond, never to be recalled. 

 The thought itself is a sad one, when 

 we consider the brief duration of life. 

 Those 210 seconds are 210 messengers 

 which will proclaim throughout eterni- 

 ty this catastrophe (that makes me 



