116 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



laborer's summer hat is very good for that 

 purpose. Tlie veil passed around the rim 

 has a rubber string whicli ties it against the 

 neck. 



Second. Use smoke to prevent the anger of 

 the bees. P'or a smoker nothing is better 

 than a small lump of white rotten wood per- 

 fectly dry, or a roll of linen or cotton rags 

 interspersed with some sprigs of dry grass. 



I have seen in Italy ivnd in France several 

 kinds of bellows and smokers ; one which 

 seemed to me very easy to manage was a tube 

 of tin a little more than an inch in diameter 

 and about eight inches long. This tube was 

 filled with a roll of linen or cotton rags which 

 burned slowly. To extinguish it the cotton 

 roll was drawn inside of the tube and the tube 

 was driven in the ground. 



If bees are unusually cross, go before the 

 entrance of the hive and send in two or three 

 puffs of smoke ; remove the cover of the hive, 

 raise carefully the honey board, sending some 

 smoke inside the hive. Remove the honey 

 board, send a little smoke between the combs, 

 and your bees will be in good disposition for 

 the time of your operation. As soon as you 

 see some bees running to and fro on the tops 

 of the frames, quiet them with a little smoke. 



Remember that the handling of bees is more 

 easy between ten in the morning and three in 

 the afternoon— in a clear than in a cloudy day 

 —in spring and summer than in fall, and with 

 Italians, pure Italians, than with black, gTay 

 or hybrid bees. 



As to gloves, I cannot advise their use, for 

 they are inconvenient. It is better to leave 

 them alone, and to learn to handle bees. 



QUESTION. 



I prefer artificial swarming. How should I 

 start the nuclei ? 



ANSWEIl. 



It is impossible to answer your question. 

 That will depend on the force of your colonies 

 and the season. Here in Hamilton, Hancock 

 Co., we start the first nuclei in May, but some 

 years we have to defer it till the first of June. 



QUESTION. 



Are the bees, placed on a lawn, disturbed 

 by the noise of a mower close to their hives, 

 and will the moving of their stands to mow 

 the grass have a bad effect ? C. E. S. 



Buffalo, N. Y. 



ANSWKK. 



The noise of the mower will not effect 

 the bees if it does not strike their hive. But 

 the man would be exposed to their stings. 

 To remove the bees at every mowing would 

 be a big job if the colonies are numerous ; and 

 unless closed up before removing the hives 

 the bees would he greatly disturbed. I advise 

 to close up the hive before sunrise, and to 

 mow innnediately, so as to keep the bees 

 closed as litth^ as i)ossible, taking care to open 

 the entrances befon^ the heat wf itke dav. 



To Beginners in Apiculture. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



ARTICLE II. 

 During the coming month —from the 

 last of April to the last of May — our little 

 models of industry and thrift will need but 

 little care and but little attention, though 

 they had best receive a great deal of the 

 latter. How often we hear something like 

 the following from our lady friends : 

 "How I wish the same luck would bless 

 me that attends Mrs. M. in the care of 

 house-plants ; " and as often we feel like 

 saying : Undoubtedly it would, my dear 

 madam, did you love them as well and care 

 for them as assiduously. It is loving care, 

 not luck, that keeps the noxious dust-particles 

 and scale-insects from the houses, and 

 makes the ruinous attempts of the little 

 aphis and wee spider futile. So, too, with 

 our bees. He who loves to watch, closely 

 observe, aye, and tenderly fondle, will be 

 the one whom " luck " will bless. So I say 

 commence at once those frequent attentions 

 which will acquaint you with the wondrous 

 life-history of your little help-meets, make 

 you to understand their needs, and so culti- 

 vate a reciprocal acquaintance that your 

 closest scrutiny, so far from disquieting 

 them, will be rewarded by the discovery of 

 all their usual operations. The wax se- 

 creters will yield their palets, the little cell 

 architects will rear their marvellous struct- 

 ures, the labor-worn gatherers will empty 

 their stomachs, the staid old queen continue 

 her egg-laying, and the old drones — those 

 bummers of the hive — will stare at you. 

 And all this before your very eyes. If you 

 wish the best success, you must open the 

 hives and make very frequent examinations, 

 and thus very soon you and the bees will be- 

 come mutually fearless, and you can abandon 

 the sooner those cumbrous appendages, your 

 bee gloves. But in all this, strive never to 

 jar the bees, nor make a quick motion. 



WITHIN THE HIVE. 



Now, on the warm, pleasant days — you 

 will open the hives on no other — what will 

 you expect to see as you peer into the se- 

 crets of the hive's interior ? First, if you 

 have followed instructions, you will find 

 almost every card of comb literally covered 

 with bees ; and if you examine closely 

 enough, you nuiy see the old queen herself. 

 You will know iier by her very long body, 

 looking as though it needed a prop. Trouble 

 not at its length, for from the queen's 

 abdomen are to come those millions of 

 eggs, the very germs of the apiarist's suc- 

 cess — not now, but in a few weeks. You 

 will also sec the fat, corpulent drones, 

 shorter than the queen, but larger than 

 either (picen or workers. Don't grumble at 

 the plump, lazy gentry, for, unlike their 



