662 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the cylinder. The cloth falls over the 

 shoulders, or may be tucked under 

 the coat-collar. The hands should 

 never be protected. Any kind of 

 glove which may be worn will be 

 more objectionable to the bees than 

 the bare hands. If the bees are par- 

 ticularly irascible, singe the hair off 

 the back of the hands and dip them 

 frequently in cold water. 



Quick motions and sudden jars to 

 the hive should be avoided. Hives 

 should, therefore, never be opened in 

 cold weather, when the propolis, with 

 which the cover and frames are fast- 

 tened,is hard, and when everything 

 comes apart with a snap. The breath 

 of some persons is objectionable to 

 the bees ; but in hunting for a queen 

 on the comb, I frequently blow hard 

 on the bees to make them disperse 

 and move around, and I find that such 

 a blow of cool air is less objectionable 

 and less irritating to them than 

 smoke. 



FRIGHT OF BEES. 



Bees have a natural fear of smoke. 

 Taking advantage of this trait, smoke 

 is the principal weapon in the hands 

 of man with which to control, sub- 

 due or direct the bees. By judicious 

 use of smoke the bees may be made 

 to move in any direction desired, as 

 they will always retreat from it. 



A roll of cotton rags of the size and 

 shape of bologna sausage makes a 

 very good smoker. The rags should 

 be rolled as hard as possible to pre- 

 vent blazing, and tied every two 

 inches. The bellows-smoker, now so 

 commonly used by bee-keepers, is, 

 however, a far superior implement, as 

 it will burn anything that will burn 

 in a stove, and avoids danger of tire, 

 which is often caused by the cotton 

 roll. 



MANIPULATING COMBS. 



In the manipulation of combs great 

 care should be used not to pinch or 

 crush any bees, as the odor of poison 

 extruded by such is exceedingly ir- 

 ritating to the other bees in the hive, 

 or to those flying about. If a bee is 

 crushed or stings the hand, a few 

 puffs of smoke on the spot will gen- 

 erally neutralize and conceal the odor 

 of the poison. 



When it is necessary to remove the 

 bees from a comb, the best way is to 

 shake them off', holding the frame so 

 securely that it will not slip out of 

 the fingers. As, however, some bees 

 will hold on with the tenacity of a 

 kitten, they must be brushed off. For 

 this purpose nothing is better than a 

 single, large eagle feather. This 

 should be frequently dipped in water 

 to keep it soft and pliable. A wing 

 or brush is not desirable, as the bees 

 may get entangled in the feathers, 

 hair or fibers, which is very exasper- 

 ating to them. 



If a comb contains queen-cells, 

 which it is desirable to save, such a 

 comb must, however, not be shaken, 

 as the sudden motion is liable to in- 

 jure the embryo queen. The bees 

 must then all be brushed off, and to 

 dampen their possible ire at this pro- 

 ceeding, it is advisable to sprinkle 

 them slightly, and frequently dip the 



feather in water. This prevents them 

 from taking wing immediately, and 

 getting the impression that a shower 

 is coming up, they are more desirous 

 of taking care of themselves than of 

 attacking their owner. 

 Independence, o Calif. 



For tbe Amencan Bee JoamaL 



AFnllColonyofB' 



s. m'lees. 



As I have noticed the '' Swarm of 

 Be's"onpage 438, and do not think 

 it more than a nucleus, I send to the 

 American Bee Journal what I 

 consider a ''full colony," selected 

 from my old scrap-book. 



May,o+ Mich., Sept. 1, 1887. 



[The ''full colony" referred to in 

 the above, is as follows :— Ed.] 



B-thiDk ere you stumble, for what may B-fall, 

 H truthful to eelf, and B laithtul to all ; 

 B watchful, B ready, B open, B frank. ' 

 B manly to all men, what ere B their rank. 



B calm, B retiring. B ne'er led astray, 



B urateful, B cautious of those who B-tray. 



B careful, but yet B sure to B-stow ; 



B temperate, B steadfast, to anger B slow, 



B earnest, B truthful. B firm and B fair. 

 B meek, and of all miss-B-haviour B-ware. 

 B pleasant. B patient, B fervent to all, 

 B best if you can ; but B humble withal. 



B just and B generous, B honest, B wise, 

 B mindful of time, and B certain it flies. 

 B hopeful, B cheerful, B happy, B kind, 

 B busy of body, B modest of mind. 



B brave, and B-ware of the sins that B-set, 



B sure that no sin shall another B-gel. 



B prudent, B liberal : of order B fond. 



Buy less than you need, B-tore buying B-yond. 



B prompt and B dutitui, sttll B polite. 



B reverent, B quiet, B >ure and B right. 



B thoughtful, B thankful, what 'ere may B-tide ; 



B trustful. B juylul, B cleanly B side. 



B tender, B luving, B good and B-nign, 



B-loved Bbalt thou B, and all else B thine. 



Gleanings. 



Bee-KeeDinE w itli otlier Pursuits. 



DK. C. C. MILLER. 



Should bee-keeping be made an ex- 

 clusive business, or should it be pur- 

 sued in conjunction with some other 

 business V This question can be best 

 answered after considering some of 

 the pursuits that may be combined 

 with bee-keeping. 1 am competent 

 to speak of only a few ; and if it seems 

 really desirable that there shall be a 

 combination, perhaps others may be 

 called out. Perhaps I may arouse 

 Mr. G. M. Doolittle by saying that I 

 think he has made one of the worst 

 combinations possible in combining 

 bee-keeping with small fruit raising. 

 I think there is a somewhat general 

 impression that beekeeping and rais- 

 ing small fruits go nicely together. 

 There is this much to say in favor of 

 it— that tbe man with the right taste 

 for bee-keeping is apt to have the 

 right taste for a fruit-raiser ; and if 

 successful at either he would be suc- 

 cessful at the other if he should turn 

 his attention to it. 



But a business to be combined with 

 bee-keeping should be one that would 

 require the attention of the bee-keeper 

 mainly at a time when his bees re- 

 quire no care. So far as my experi- 

 ence goes, the small-fruit business 



requires the closest attention at the 

 very time the bees demand it. As 

 soon as spring has fairly opened,there 

 is work to be done at the bees, and so 

 there is at strawberries, raspberries, 

 etc. As the season advances, the 

 bees become more imperative in their 

 demands, and so do the berries. In 

 the height of the picking season, when 

 the eyes of the fruit-raiser must be 

 everywhere to see that pickers are 

 making good work, to settle disputes, 

 to make sure that berries are promptly 

 sent to their proper destination, and 

 not allowed to lie over and spoil— at 

 this time, when the fruit-raiser, un- 

 less possessed of a very cool head, is 

 about half crazy, the bees alone are 

 enough to make him go distracted 

 when a dozen swarms may come out 

 at a time. In a word, the busy time 

 for each comes at the same time ; and 

 what is wanted is something to occupy 

 the leisure time of the bee-keeper. 



Teaching school, I think, comes 

 nearer to it ; for the busy time with 

 bees comes in the summer vacation ; 

 and one with sufficient strength and 

 the right taste might take care of 

 quite a number of colonies without 

 interfering with school duties. I 

 think, however, he would in time de- 

 cide as I did, to give up one or the 

 other. A notable exception, however, 

 is in the case of Mr. E. A. Gastman, 

 of Decatur, Ills., who has been for 

 many years superintendent of schools, 

 if I am not mistaken, and at the same 

 time a bee-keeper. Mr. Gastman, 

 however, is a man of magniticent 

 physique— by the way, it just occurs 

 to me that he is very much the build 

 of G. M. Doolittle— and looks as if he 

 might easily do the work of two ordi- 

 nary men. 



Of course, there may be many 

 special departments in which different 

 individuals may have developed 

 special taste and ability, where a 

 somewhat successful combination 

 might be made. For instance, the 

 teacher of the old-fashioned singing- 

 school (now unfortunately out of 

 vogue) could take care of bees with- 

 out interfering with his " schools," 

 held only on the long evenings. 



But what we are after is something 

 that may be done by almost any one 

 with the requisite qualihcations to be 

 a good bee-keeper. I think 1 have 

 heard poultry-keeping spoken of in 

 connection with bee-keeping. That, 

 again, comes too much like berry- 

 raising. When work begins to press 

 with the bees, old Biddy will be want- 

 ing to sit, and perhaps two or three 

 hens will be sitting on one nest, per- 

 sistently changing from where you 

 want them, till you feel like shutting 

 your teeth together hard, and saying, 

 ■■ What does make you act so, when I 

 haven't time to fuss with you V I 

 should just like to wring your necks 

 for you." Yet after all this is said, 

 there remains the fact that, in at 

 least two instances, periodicals have 

 been published having for their spe- 

 cialties bee-keeping and poultry-rais- 

 ing. Why this, unless the two pur- 

 suits were supposed to have some 

 special adaptation to each other i* 



To tell the truth, if a young man 

 to-day were to write me, " I have at 



