

VOL, HI, 



FLINT, MICH^eM, JCHE 10, li.90. 



NO. 



Control of the Mind ; A Ku-Klux Robe ; A 



Universal Work-Box ; Played-out 



Conveniences ; Earth Pits for 



Crazy Swarms. 



E. E. HASTY. 



/pj) OMFORT like happiness cannot flour- 

 J^ ^l ish much unless it has its inner springs 

 in the man himself. Devise as well as 

 we maj', bees will sometimes yet under 

 our riy. Absurd as it may seem to outsiders, 

 one of the things to be done is to compel a 

 comfortable frame of mind within, even 

 when a bee or two is perambulating the per- 

 son, and hands are too imperatively occupied 

 to retreat and get him out. A little philoso- 

 phy .and experience enables one to attain to 

 this. I have pursued the even tenor of my 

 way, for a quarter of an hour or so, while a 

 bee, who had finished his measurements for 

 a bust of me, was vainly trying to get out 

 from under my collar, which was a little too 

 tight for him. Experience teaches us that 

 such bees do not very often sting — so long as 

 they are let entirely alone — and that going 

 on a hunt for them very often results in 

 pinching them into a sting. But anent this 

 sharp-pointed subject, one of the comforts 

 of my apiary (don't always show it to visi- 

 tors though) is a Ku-klux robe, which goes 

 all over the upper half of the individual, and 

 has elastics at the wrists and waist. A 

 square of silk net* in front provides for 

 vision. Practically it is not very often that 

 bees are so furiously cross that a Ku-kiux 

 robe needs to be put on : but it is a great and 

 frequent comfort to know that it is at hand, 

 and can be put on rather than give up inglo- 

 riously beaten. I do often have occasion to 

 use it when it is so cold or so dark, that bees 

 stupidly alight in great numbers on their 

 keeper, and, without any evil intentions, 

 crawl in search of a warm place. 



A swarming-time comfort not very com- 

 mon in apiaries, I believe, is a brush of 

 gieen foliage. Wings and brushes of hair 

 F )uu make bees angry. Brushes of vegetable 

 iibre ar^ better in this respect ; but where 

 very much brushing is to be done the "cattle 

 get riled" even with them. Soft green 

 leaves are much less offensive. I manufac- 

 ture one every morning, or so, and keep it, 

 when not in use, with the butt standing in 

 water. Have it about two feet long, in size 

 and shape like a small feather duster. Peach 



tree sprouts are excellent material, the leaves 

 from the lower half being stripped off. 

 After the supply failed I found substitutes. 

 A tough, slender golden-rod which grows in 

 tufts is one of the best. My method of 

 taking swarms calls for an unusual amount 

 of brushing. I dump the bulk of a swarm 

 into a basket, after the cluster is two- thirds 

 formed, and hang up the basket with an S 

 shaped wire. Then with a green brush I 

 quickly make the bees give up their chosen 

 spot and adopt the basket for their cluster. 

 None of your shutting bees in as if they 

 were culprits to be carried off to prison ! 

 One is so completely master of the situation 

 when a swarm has adopted the basket. 

 There they hang as placid as a bunch of 

 grapes ; and as they hang they seem to say, 

 "We wouldn't be elsewhere for millions." 

 A very comfortable feeling comt s over the 

 keeper about that time. And, by the way, 

 my basket itself is a comfort. It is a com- 

 mon five cent basket, half bushel size, with 

 four bits bf lath a foot long tacked to the 

 corners as legs. Ensconced in such a basket 

 as this a swarm can be set down on the 

 ground, hung up elsewhere, or put in almost 

 any imaginable place. 



When I was younger and greener than 

 now I was going to have a comfort of com- 

 forts to take with me to each hive I manipu- 

 lated — a sort of everything combined in a 

 case of modern size — comb holders, wax \)OX, 

 fuel basket, smoker rest, assortment of tools, 

 writing desk, little trays and tills, and a 

 covered wardrobe for hats, gloves and Ku- 

 klux. Well, I made the thing, and used it 

 (boys called it the photograph gallery) and 

 1 have kept on using it ever since, and, as 

 for me, I would hardly know how to do 

 without it ; but its disadvantages are so 

 serious that I would hardly recommend it to 

 tlie fraternity in general. I'm thinking that 

 the subject of played-out conveniences 

 would be big enough to fill a number of the 

 Review, if topics should run out in future 

 days. I see you liint that, the folding tent 

 inclines to play out. -lust so here. I invent- 

 ed and made a big one in my callow days, 

 and used it much. Further on I learned to 

 use it less. Further on I learned to use it 

 not at all ; and the frame work (too exten- 

 sive to take in-doors) has rotted do^n. I 

 also had a Tittle factory-made tent — and it is 

 so many years since I had it out that I don't 

 know whether it is serviceable now or not. 

 When bees are honest there is no need of a 



