120 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



the honey in the empty upper stories 

 on the wheelbarrow. I first see that 

 the smoker is in good trim, pry the 

 cover loose, lean it up against the front 

 corner of the hive, then proceed to 

 smoke down the greater portion of the 

 bees, after which I take out the combs 

 and brush the few remaining bees off 

 with a Coggshall brush. If I have 

 done a good job with the smoker there 

 will be only a few bees left along the 

 bottom bar. I do not try to get every 

 bee off the combs; it would take too 

 long; and many of them will leave be- 

 fore we get loaded up, and the few 

 taken in the extracting-house will soon 

 cluster on the screen-window and will 

 do no harm. When I get a comb free 

 from bees it is put in the further side 

 of the empty hive on the wheelbarrow, 

 and covered up with a robber-cloth; 

 then, when the next is ready to go in, 

 I slide the cloth up from the back side, 

 and continue in this manner until I 

 get in three combs of honey; the other 

 five are put in by sliding the cloth 

 back from the front. Then the upper 

 story that I have just emptied is pried 

 off and put on top of the one I have 

 just filled. Now I am ready to treat 

 the story below, the same as I have 

 the first one. The matter of getting off 

 what few bees there are left after 

 smoking down, say, three-fourths of 

 them, is not much work. What there 

 are will be near the bottom-bar. 



brushing bees both "up" and 

 "down." 



With the left hand, I take hold of the 

 corner of a frame, near the top-bar, 

 in such a way that the thumb and the 

 first and second fingers reach quite 

 well out on the end-bar. The further 

 I can reach out, without getting my 

 fingers sticky, the easier I can hold 

 the frame. The projection of the top- 

 bar comes in the palm of the hand. 

 You will see that with the grip on the 

 frame, I can make it hang nearly 



straight up and down. Now I swing 

 the frame around until the bottom-bar 

 is nearlj'^ towards me. I am now 

 read}' to brush off the bees. I take 

 the Coggshall broom in the right hand, 

 and, with one downward brush I can 

 nearly clean the comb, and when I am 

 bringing the broom back up to sweep 

 the other side, I finish cleaning the 

 first side. You will see that by hold- 

 ing the comb in this manner, both sides 

 are in a position to be swept, without 

 changing the position of either hand. 

 As the bees are brushed off in front of 

 the hive, after the first downward 

 stroke, any straggling bees that may 

 be left are brushed up one side and 

 down the other. The idea is to brush 

 bees with both up and down strokes, 

 and the few bees that are left along 

 the bottom-bar may be disregarded. 

 This up stroke of the broom scatters 

 the bees some, but, as they are in front 

 of the hive, they have no trouble in 

 finding their entrance. 



ONE GOOD FEATURE OF BLACKS AND 

 HYBRIDS. 



The above is my method of getting 

 the bees off the combs where the 

 Italian blood predominates; but when 

 I come to a colony of blacks, or hy- 

 brids, or any colony that acts 

 "panicky" when I smoke them (I know 

 before opening the hive which they 

 are) I open the hive as before, and 

 gently smoke them off the top-bars until 

 I get them started down, when I 

 gradually increase the smoke until 

 they are nearly all in the 'lower half 

 of the upper story, when a few quick 

 strokes of the smoker will set them in 

 a panic, and they will nearly all run 

 down below. Now I work quickly 

 with the pry, loosen the upper story, 

 and set it off before the bees have time 

 to get back. In this way, many times 

 the combs are so free^^from bees that 

 they need no brushing, and are wheel- 

 ed direct to the honej'-house. 



Remus, Mich., Feb. 17, 1904. 



