168 ON BEEKS AND KONET; 



We will now point out the rxieans by which the bee-keeper 

 may stupify his bees, without killing or hurting them ; how 

 he may, while tihey are thus stupified, transfer them all from 

 their own hive, leaving him the honey, and unite them to a- 

 nother stock, with which they will pass the winter, and by the 

 opening of the spring give the owner a strong, and vigorous colo- 

 ny, which will either throw off strong and vigorous swarms, or. 

 if the bee-keeper prefers, will keep at work in the thus doubled 

 hive, and greatly increase the make of honey. It must be 

 borne in mind that the hive we have recommended and describ- 

 ed, is, if the bee-keeper choose so to manage it, a non-swarming 

 hive, though he may let it swarm or not.s\varm,.at his pleasure. 



There grows in the old damp meadows, horse pastures and 

 in other localities all about the farms, a sort of mushroom, va- 

 rying in size from a human head to a Shanghae's egg, which^ 

 is variously called Puck, Puff ball, Frogcheese, and Fungus, 

 and by Naturalists, Flingus Maximus, or Pulverulentus, and^ 

 Bovista Lycoperdon. The fumes of this, after it has been 

 dried, are narcotic, and will so stupify the bees, that they will 

 tumble down from out of the hive, and remain dormant from? 

 one to two hours, during which time, they may. be handled, 

 with entire impunity. 



An old English bee-master, John Thorley, who wrote in 

 1774, after, as he says, " forty years' experiencoj'' thus des- 

 cribes the preparation of the Fungus for use : *' When you 

 have pEocured one of these Pucks, put it into a- large paper, 

 pressing it down therein to two thirds or one half its bulk, ty- 

 ing it up very close. Put it into an oven, some time after the 

 household bread is drawn, letting it continue all night. When 

 it will liiold fire, it is fit for use.'^ For the purpose of fumigat- 

 ing the bees, and stupifying them, a small sheet-iron box must 

 be procured, in size between a pepper-box and a flour-dredging 

 box, and having a cover to fit on rather tight.* From one end 

 of this there should extend a tube, about eight inches long, 

 and one half inch bore, bent upwards at its upper end, so as 

 to be inserted into the door of the hive ; and from the other 

 end, another tube about six. inches long, and of such size as to 

 fit snugly upon the nose of a common bellows. Having the 



*BrowH's patent Fumigator is excellent for this purpose. 



