234 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



A ugust 



bees. Smoke is all right, but please 

 bear in mind that a little smoke will 

 drive the bees while too much only 

 confuses them. 1 generally blow a 

 little smoke on the alighting board — 

 just enough to divert the guards at 

 the entrance nf the hive — then re- 

 move the cover, and as I raise the 

 painted cloth which covers the sec- 

 tions 1 blow sujoke across the top of 

 the sections (against the wind if there 

 is any.) This allows just enough cold 

 smoke to drift into the sections to send 

 the bees scampering below. Now, 

 turn the super quickly on its edge, so 

 that the wind will blow through the 

 super from the top, as it is set on the 

 hive and, with a Coggshall's bee 

 brush, quickly brush the bees from 

 the bottom of the super into the next 

 one below, or into the hive. In this 

 nway early all of the bees will be got- 

 ten out of the super at the start. 

 Now, pile the supers up six or eight 

 high, if you have that many to take 

 off at one time, and place a double 

 cone bee escape on top of the pile; 

 then just watch those six or eight dif- 

 ferent families of bees hustle each 

 other out of those sections and make 

 a bee line for their own hive. 



While the Porter bee escape works 

 very well on the hive, I prefer the 

 above plan, as it saves one handling 

 of the supers full of honey. Then, 

 again, the honey is all piled in good 

 shape to run into the honey house at 

 sundown. The cone escapes never get 

 clogged with dead bees or propolis. 



1 have sometimes noticed a bee- 

 keeper taking off comb honey — and 

 he was old enough to know better — 

 approach the hive and give the bees 

 a drastic smoking at the entrance, 

 thereby driving a large portion of the 



bees into the top super. Then he 

 would yank off the hive cover with a 

 snap — a cloth on top of the sections 

 was only a nuisance to him; then in 

 went another deluge of smoke, among 

 the white capping of the section honey 

 Next, off came the super of honey, 

 just boiling full of bees. He then 

 tried the "shake out" procees, gener- 

 ally accompanied with a sort of war 

 dance, with exclamations that sound- 

 ed like "bad lujin" talk. The super 

 would then be set up edgewise on the 

 ground, while the nozzle of the 

 smoker was applied to the openings 

 on one side, while the bee brush got 

 in its work on the other side, and the 

 apiarist (?) pumped smoke through 

 the nice, white honey, until it looked, 

 tasted and smelled as if it had been 

 the very last thing rescued from a 

 burning barn 



Late in the season the bees are loth 

 to leave the sections, even after they 

 have been piled up in the bee yard 

 for several hours; but if the supers 

 can be left out over night the bees 

 will either get out early in the morn- 

 ing or cluster in a few sections, when 

 they can be lifted out and shaken on 

 the ground, after which they will soon 

 find their way home. All leaking or 

 uncapped sections can be returned to 

 the hive for the bees to finish during 

 the working season, or packed as sec- 

 ond class. If not filled well enough 

 to sell they can be extracted, 

 and used for baits next season. In 

 fact, I try to have the bees draw 

 foundation as late in the season as 

 possible, in order to have a lot of 

 drawn combs to start the next season 

 with. 



While on this subject, under the 

 good of the order, I might be per- 



