432 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



there is oaly one way, and that is shown in 

 the accompanying- illustration. The thumb 

 should be on the side of the bellows next to 

 the stove. This lets the hand hang- in the 

 natural position without any twist at the 

 wrist. To handle the smoker, proceed as 

 follows : 



Stand in front of the hive, with the en- 

 trance at the left and the smoker in the 

 right hand as shown in the illustration. 



With the left, pry the cover loose, then with 

 the other holding the smoker in a perpen- 

 dicular position, or only slig-htly tilted, per- 

 haps, blow a little smoke over the tops of 

 the frames. After the cover is removed, 

 and the bees have been sufficiently quieted, 

 set the smoker down close to the back end 

 (not the front) of the hive and on the ground. 

 In doing this, the position of the wrist and 

 hand does not have to be changed. Now, 

 then, if the bees begin to act obstreperouslj', 

 all one has to do is to reach down, grab the 

 smoker in the most easy and natural wa3', 

 as shown in the illustration, and blow the 

 smoke over the frames without twisting the 

 wrist or the hand in an awkward angular 

 kink. 



If one gets to using an implement wrong- 

 ly, he will waste seconds, minutes, and hours 

 of time as the weeks and months roll by. 

 Every movement should be calculated to get 

 the maximum results with the minimum of 

 time and actual muscular force expended. 



I have seen bee-keepers pick up the smok- 

 er in the left hand, hold it in an awkward 

 way which I can hardly describe, and then 

 when they were through lay the smoker 

 down in front of the entrance, right in the 

 height of the honey-flow. Or perhaps they 

 will lay it on its side behind the hive; then 

 when they want it for an emergency it can 

 not be found. 



There are many bee-keepers who have a 

 fashion of losing their smokers. Perhaps 

 the weeds are so deep around the hives that, 

 when the smoker is set down on the ground, 

 it can not.be seen. To accommodate all such 

 we have a very convenient hook which is 

 attached to the rear of our smoker-bellows, 

 see cut. This per- 

 mits of the smoker 

 being hung on the 

 hive where it can be 

 easily seen. Then 

 it has another ad- 

 vantage, that, when 

 one is carrying an 

 armful of supers, 

 using both hands 

 and arms, he can 

 hang this hook over 

 the little finger of 

 one hand, leaving 

 the whole hand or 

 both hands perfect- 

 ly free to hold the 



armful of stuff while he walks to the other 

 part of the yard. 



These are simple little things; but the 

 man, as I have already suggested, who can 

 save the minutes can save the hours and the 

 days. When labor is high-priced, and can 

 not be had, one's own time should be econ- 

 omized in every way possible. Why, I hase 

 seen bee-keepers grab an armful of supers, 

 take them some distance from the point 

 where they were working, and then go back 

 and get the smoker. May be they forget 

 all about the pry and screwdriver for loos- 

 ening the frames or covers, and have to 

 make another trip. 



EIQHT=FRAME JUMBO HIVES. 



Apple^blossom Honey — the Quality and Quantity. 



BY J. A. CRANE. 



Some time ago the question appeared in 

 Gleanings, why a hive, L. length, and 

 holding eight frames the same depth as the 

 "Draper barns," would not be a good 

 thing. Now, that is just the hive for me. I 

 have used them exclusively for ten years, 

 and never lost a colony in one of them, and 

 will show my record of honey-yield with 

 any one in this section. They are no new 

 thing here, nor original with me, having 

 been used by bee-keepers in this town for 

 over twenty years. They take regular 

 eight-frame supers for sections, and with 



