(jlesnings in Bee Culture 



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At Borodino, New York 



" I am a beginner, and want you to tell 

 me how to use smoke, when working with 

 my bees, so as to secure the best results." 



" Undoubtedly we old fellows do not sym- 

 pathize with beginners in bee-keeping as 

 we ought, inasmuch as forty odd years 

 have carried us so far from the beginning 

 that some of the troubles we had when we 

 commenced have been forgotten. But I 

 can remember the time when a Doo-little 

 fellow first looked into a hive containing a 

 colony of live bees. I see him now with the 

 sleeves of his coat tied at the wrists, hiit- 

 tens with long wrists tied in the same way, 

 trousers fastened at the bottom, and hat 

 with a veil that reached to the waist (the 

 veil also tied down). With the mercury up 

 to 85° in the shade, this bundled-up lad 

 stood in the sun, and used all of his lung 

 power to blow, in the direction of the bees, 

 the smoke arising from some chips scat- 

 tered over a pan of live coals. Even a be- 

 ginner in the year 1911 may see the advan- 

 tages he has now over those of fifty years 

 ago. Surely, in the line of smoke for bees 

 ' the world do move; ' and I will add that, 

 bundled up as he was, the boy got stung. 



"I soon learned to take off my coat, then 

 the mittens, to use a veil which came only 

 to the shoulders, and bicycle-clips instead 

 of strings at the bottom of the trousers. 

 Some bee-keepers throw away the veil and 

 clips; but I advise the beginner to use them 

 and also a smoker. The practical ajiiarist 

 who handles colonies of bees every day can 

 tell, before he goes to work, about the quan- 

 tity of smoke the bees will need. I do not 

 smoke one colony in twenty, other than 

 over the frames as the cover is raised. 



"Some apiarists, whom the bees do not 

 sting much, use no smoke at all; and one 

 man thinks it strange that I always carry a 

 smoker with me. I went to his apiary years 

 ago, with two other bee-keepers; and as 

 soon as he opened the first hive no bees 

 seemed to ho\er about him; but half a doz- 

 en started toward me at once; and as I had 

 no veil with me I beat a hasty retreat, only 

 to be laughed at. But a moment or two 

 afterward the other two were seen leaving 

 also, to the amusement of the bee-keeper, 

 whom bees rarely stung. There are a few 

 men in the world who, for unaccountable 

 reasons, seem to be sting-proof. Others can 

 not come near bees without being stung. 



"An old neighbor of ours, who kept bees 

 when I was a little boy, boasted that he 

 was never stung by bees, and I could hard- 

 ly believe him. When I had been in the 

 business four or five years he came into the 

 apiary as I was taking off box honey just 

 after the basswood bloom, at a time when 

 bees are generally inclined to resent being 

 molested. The man who worked the farm 

 was with me, well bundled up. This sting- 

 proof neighbor was then over 80 years old; 

 and as he came walking in among the 



hives this man shouted to him that the bees 

 would sting him. The old man said, as I 

 had heard him many times before, ' Bees 

 never sting me.' .lust about the time he 

 came near us I happened (?) to drop a 

 wide frame of sections on the frames below, 

 and did not resort to the smoker. A cloud 

 of angry bees arose in the air, and soon the 

 bundled-up man was beating a hasty re- 

 treat, which caused the old man to laugh. 

 I would willingly have followed, but I 

 wished to put my neighbor to a test. As I 

 saw no bees looking at him, I requested 

 him to hold a frame of partly filled sections 

 while I did some reaching down into the 

 hive. In doing this I drew the next wide 

 frame of sections up past another which was 

 covered with bees so as to mangle and kill 

 scores of the little fellows, making the air 

 so full of vicious bees that I was getting a 

 most unmerciful stinging on my hands and 

 through my clothing. I now looked at 

 him, standing there bolt upright, holding 

 that wide frame of sections, with not a bee 

 even hovering about him, any more than 

 they were about a fence-post standing near. 

 I now took the sections from him and closed 

 the hive about as quickly as possible, but 

 not on his account. As we walked out of 

 the apiary my clothes were full of hissing 

 bees, with a swarm of angry ones about my 

 head, while not a bee had looked at him. 



"Now, the beginner who is sting-proof 

 needs little advice about how to smoke bees; 

 but for such as I was it will not be out of 

 place. Before opening a hive containing 

 a full colony, blow a little smoke in at 

 the entrance — enough so that a little mur- 

 mur is heard from the colony within. Then, 

 as the cover is carefully raised, blow a little 

 over the tops of the frames, causing most of 

 the bees to retreat down between the combs 

 out of sight, when, if the frames are han- 

 dled with care, all necessary operations can 

 be performed without arousing the bees. 

 However, if they begin to get nervous, and 

 buzz about, use more smoke, blowing it over 

 the frames as before. 



"The old bees are generally the most vin- 

 dictive when the hive is disturbed. When 

 the weather is fine, most of these are in the 

 fields, and at midday there is less need of 

 smoke than at any other time. If the blos- 

 soms yield nectar the bees are so intent on 

 honey-gathering that very little smoke is 

 needed; and sometimes in the busy part of 

 the day hives may be carefully handled, 

 without the use of smoke. But in the 

 morning or evening, when the old bees 

 are all at home, it is never a good plan to 

 open a hive without first smoking those 

 that guard the entrance. Especially is this 

 true when there is a sudden stoppage of 

 nectar from any source from which the bees 

 have been obtaining an abundance. Expe- 

 rience will soon dictate whether little or 

 much smoke should be used. 



