189'; 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



331 



we take common cotton twine and tie 

 around the rolls about five inches 

 apart, or about the right length to fit 

 in the smoker; then chop up the rolls 

 between the strings with an ax, and 

 so have a very handy piece of fuel 

 that will just fit into the smoker. One 

 bundle will last two or three hours, 

 and make a much nicer smoke than 

 any wood I ever saw. 



We take sacks and fill them with 

 the bundles, and send one to each 

 apiary, and that will last through the 

 season. The advantage of this fuel 

 is that there are no sparks, and those 

 who have chaff hives will know that 

 this is one good point. Only a short 

 time ago I burned up four chaff hives 

 on account of using wood for fuel. 

 Your smoker is always cool, easily 

 lighted, and I have known a smoker 

 to stay lighted three hours without 

 being touched. In lighting the smoker, 

 take the burnt fuel that was used the 

 last time, and by touching it with a 

 lighted match it will burn like char- 

 coal, thereby saving the time of cut- 

 ting shavings. The cost is about five 

 cents per hundred colonies per season 

 and about fifteen minutes' work to 

 prepare it. 



W. L. Coggshall, I think, was the 

 first to use fuel in this shape, and you 

 could get him to use no other. 



Another useful point is in putting 

 a hook on the smoker — one stamped 

 out of band iron, about f inch wide 

 and 3 inches long, with one end made 

 sharp, and bent like a fish hook, so it 

 can be screwd on about the center part 

 of the back of the bellows, and about 

 two inches from the top, where it does 

 not interfere with the hand. This 

 will be found very handy, as, instead 

 of groping around and bending over, 



or reaching to find a level place where 

 the smoker will stand, you can hang 

 it on the edge of the hive, and be out 

 of your way, and save a good deal of 

 time and annoyance. 



Another point we just caught on 

 this season is in driving the bees down 

 in the supers, either in extracting or 

 comb-honey supers, where bee-escapes 

 are not used. This is done by taking 

 hold of one corner of the oilcloth and 

 pulling it loose, just so the opposite 

 corner hangs, and by blowing smoke 

 from the smoker by the side of the 

 cloth, and flapping the oilcloth up and 

 down quite rapidly, you will be sur- 

 prised to see how quickly the little 

 fellows will leave and go downstairs. 

 It seems to draw just the amount of 

 smoke required, and it scatters it 

 evenly over the frames, and forces it 

 down in between the combs farther 

 than a smoker will do it, and not so 

 much, and does not get the bees ex- 

 cited. With a little practice a person 

 can nearly clean the supers of bees, 

 and where you extract you hardly 

 need to brush the combs. 



[Mr. N. E. Boomhower is a son of 

 Frank Boomhower, of Gallupville, N. 

 Y. As I saw Mr. N. E., or Novice, 

 as he is familarily called, working in 

 one of Mr. Coggshall's apiaries, I can 

 testify to the correctness of every 

 point he makes. It is indeed true that 

 this old gunny-sack smoker-fuel is 

 cheap and lasting, and it gives a good 

 volume of smoke without sparks. I 

 think Mr. C. told me he bought for 

 this purpose old phosphate -sacks. The 

 smell of the phosphate would do no 

 harm, but, on the contrary, would have 

 a more favorable effect on the bees. 

 I do not suppose it would pay ordinar- 

 ily to buy new burlap for the purpose 



