GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



758 



Some of your questions, evidently leveled at 

 me must be relating to something Dr. Miller 

 has said. You refer to me as saying I "do not 

 as a rule lift the top hive." I can't find that I 

 said that. If I did not. then the questions im- 

 mediately following require no answer. 



As I have said before, I am only seeking 

 light. I am willing to " flop " at any moment 

 to the ten -frame as soon as I can be thoroughly 

 convinced that it is the right size ; but this 

 "flopping business" is terribly expensive, and 

 should not be indulged in very often except for 

 the best of reasons— reasons supported by the 

 great majority of the fraternity. 



I may say, incidentally, right here, that we 

 have been experimenting on a small scale with 

 half-depth Langstroih brood-cbambers. but 

 with results that were not altogether satisfac- 

 tory. The bees will rear brood very nicely in 

 one section, and then it requires a big i}ressure 

 to induce them to go into the next one; but I 

 do not find this to be true of the eight-frame 

 full-depth bodies. So far I am not so much 

 pleased with the half-depth as I once was.— 

 Ed.] 



USE AND ABUSE OF SMOKERS. 



A PLEA FOR THE MUCH-ABUSED BEES; HOW 

 TO GET ALONG WITH LESS SMOKE. 



By R. K. Mttotauhtcn. 



When one of those great fires, which seem 

 the almost necessary concomitant of civilization 

 in our larger towns, occurs, we hear sometimes 

 of men being killed by the mere process of suf- 

 focation. The actual flames have not reached 

 them, but the volumes of smoke which a great 

 conflagration necessarily causes have been 

 enough, first of all, to deprive them of con- 

 sciousness and then of life itself. The smoke 

 from the burning debris, and that alone, has in 

 fact been sufficient to stay the vital process 

 altogether. Even on a small scale there are 

 none of us, probably, who do not know how 

 unpleasant the effects of a smoky chimney may 

 be; and yet, notwithstanding the obvious un- 

 pleasantness and inconvenience of smoke, 

 when we are dealing with bees we seem to will- 

 fully lay aside what common (I might almost 

 say every-day) experience has taught us, and, 

 accordingly, to talk about bees being "pacified " 

 with smoke has become an almost stereotyped 

 phrase among bee-keepers. 



Now, I should like to ask, on what possible 

 basis of fact or experience docs this theory of 

 bees being "pacified" by smoke rest? No 

 doubt you can drive angry bees away with 

 smoke, just as, in a battle, you could drive 

 away a swarm of assailants with a Maxim 

 gun; but it seems to me just as reasonable to 

 apply the word " pacifying" to the one as to 

 the other process. It would, in fact, be just as 

 reasonable to suppose that you could pacify an 

 angry man by deluging him with a volume of 

 smoke, such as issues from the ordinary smoker, 

 as to suppose that there can be any thing really 

 pacifying in using your smoker to an ordinary 

 hive. 

 If we may argue from analogy, there are only 



Oct. 1. 



two effects which can possibly follow from us- 

 ing the smoker in the case of bees. The first is, 

 to drive them away, just as a volume of smoke 

 would sptedily empty a room of its inhabitants; 

 and the second is, to partially or wliolly stupefy 

 them, just as human beings are stupefied by 

 the smoke of a large conflagration. I have 

 heard it advanced, as a reply to this argument, 

 that, because men who smoke like loliacco- 

 smoke, theiefore bees can equally tolerate the 

 fumes from a smoker. Now, I use tobacco my- 

 self (I hope in moderation), but I have never 

 found for that reason that I can stand, say, a 

 smoky chimney better than other people. 



It must not be su[)posed that I am decrying 

 the use of the smoker altogether. On the con- 

 trary, I regard a smoker as a necessary adjunct 

 to every bee-keeper's paraphernalia; V^ut at 

 the same time, I would say that it is one of those 

 things which should be used as little as possi- 

 ble, and only when it is absolutely inn-essary. 

 Medicine, no doubt, is a good thing in times of 

 sickness; but just as no sane and healthy man 

 would think of drugging himself without a 

 cause, so I submit that the smoker should be 

 used only in cases of absolute necessity. I 

 doubt, for instance, whether it can ever be really 

 necessary to use a smoker, merely for the sake 

 of examining a hive. Turning my trousers in- 

 side my socks, and using a straw hat and a 

 good home-made veil, I am myself never stung, 

 nor do I see how any one who takes these rea- 

 sonable precautions could well be stung; for is 

 he not armed for his own particular purpose as 

 completely as were ever the knights of the 

 Middle Ages in their panoply of mail ? And, 

 if I may judge from my own experience, I am 

 almost inclined to think that bees are much 

 less aggressive when no smoke has been ap- 

 plied to the hive than when they haive. nulentes 

 volentes, had to submit to the so-called process 

 of pacification. When you are taking honey, 

 it is, of course, a different matter. The bees 

 cling, as it were by in?tinct, to their combs; 

 and to dislodge them I see nothing for it but to 

 use the smoker, as sparingly as possible, al- I 

 ways remembering that its effect, so far as the 

 bees are concerned, can not be of a beneficial 

 character. 



Let me conclude by giving one example 

 which may serve to clearly illustrate my mean- 

 ing. The other day I had occasion to take 

 some honey, and one of my neighbors had got 

 the smoker which I had been using. There 

 was, however, a fire of brush rubbish burning a 

 short distance off; so I accordingly took the 

 frames, from which I wished to dislodge the 

 bees, and. as there was a pretty fresh breeze 

 blowing, I held them so that the smoke from 

 the burning rubbish passed right among them. 

 The frames were very soon cleared of bees; 

 but such was the effect of the sniol\e that a 

 good many fell stupefied to the ground, in a 

 state which I can describe only as that uf par- 



