100 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Many a time have I received, at conven- 

 tions, or from the Ijee journals, little hints 

 on labor saving methods, or contrivances, 

 short cuts over apicultural fields that have 

 been of the greatest value to me. I am al- 

 ways happy when I can tell a brother bee 

 keeper something that will help him as I 

 have been helped. The difficulty in telling 

 others of such things lies in the fact that we 

 have often grown into them, as it were, un- 

 consciously, so that we do not realize that 

 everybody does not know of and use them as 

 well as ourselves. 



It is not always the inventions, tliat are 

 heralded and accepted with a great flourish 

 of trumpets, that prove most valuable. 

 Quite as often an idea of real merit has a 

 hard struggle at first to win recognition. 

 The Reese bee escape will well illustrate this 

 Ijoint, as well as the way in which a man's 

 ideas are sometimes appropriated with hard- 

 ly as much as a " thank you." The bee es- 

 cape was described and illustrated in Glean- 

 ings, and its merits modestly set forth. It 

 fell flat. In a few months all interest in it 

 seemed dead and the whole thing bade fair 

 to become forgotten. I took up the matter, 

 described the uses of the bee escape, in sev- 

 eral articles in the journals, and in a short 

 time the escape stock was away above par. 



Numerous variations on the original plan 

 were put forth, none of them having been 

 tested in actual ijractice. Nearly all of them 

 were copies of the Reese escape in principle 

 if not in construction, but small credit does 

 Mr. Reese get from some of these so-called 

 inventors. 



One of the things I take most comfort in 



is the fact that in my home apiary I do not 



have to wear rubbers to keep my feet dry, 



•no matter how early in the morning or how 



soon after it has rained. 



The whole surface of the ground is covered 

 so deeply with coal ashes, slack coal, etc., 

 that the ground between the hives is almost 

 like a pavement. But few weeds struggle 

 through this, and these are easily kept down. 

 The ground is always dry, never muddy, and 

 tools cannot well get out of sight as they do 

 so easily in grass. 



I do not keep smoker fuel in or about the 

 honey house. A fire, liappily smothered in 

 its infancy, cured me of that. I took an old 

 Simplicity hive, hinged the cover to one 

 side, covered the bottom with wire cloth and 

 nailed on legs about three feet high. This 

 holds planer shavings, while, in smaller 

 compartments, are matches and the kerosene 

 for lighting. For the latter, a small bottle 

 with a quill through the cork, is as good as 

 anything. This is set in a convenient place 

 in the apiary. In it fuel always keeps dry, 

 and if an unlucky spark should set it on fire, 

 it is no great loss. Keep the cap of the "Doc- 

 tor " filled with green weeds or grass and 

 you will run no danger of setting hives afire. 



I used to use a pocket knife for prying 

 apart hives, frames, etc. The edge cut into 

 the wood, it was soon dulled by nails and 

 tin, and many a blade was broken. So I 

 took an old butcher knife, broke the point 

 off square, and ground it to a dull edge. 

 This made a very strong and extremely use- 

 ful tool for all bee hive work. 



In the honey house I find storage crates 

 very useful. They are made by taking two 

 pieces 4i4xl7i4X'„ and nailing to one edge 

 of each five pieces of lath of such length 

 that the inside shall be a little wider than 

 your super. Nail two more pieces across 

 the upper corners and you have a ch^eap 

 crate which will hold a super full of sections 

 and can he stored away on shelves, piled on 

 top of each other, and carried from place to 

 place with a great saving of time and l)reak- 

 age over handling the sections singly. You 

 can have them filled with sections ready for 

 use, and as the filled supers are brought in, 

 you can exchange places, putting the filled 

 sections in the storage crates until you are 

 ready to prepare them for market. 



Dayton, 111., May 17, 1890. 



P. S. — Friend H., if you will look on page 

 724 of GleaniiKjs for 188(j, you will see that 

 1 was the one who first suggested the oil can 

 filled with the kerosene for ''firing up," in- 

 stead of Ernest Root. 



Also, the use of weeds in smoker cap — now 

 credited to Dr. Miller. 



However, these are not the only cases of 

 the kind, and I can stand it. 



I start Monday to haul 100 colonies sixty 

 miles. J. A. G. 



Some Clothing Hints ; Cupboards and "Ditty 

 Boxes; " A Handy Bee-Sting Kemedy. 



AKTHUK C. C. MILLEK. 



fAM GLAD to see that, in your leader, 

 in the last Review, you begin at the 

 foundation of the man to supply his 

 comforts. If he is uncomfortably shod, 

 he will he uncomfortable all over. Wear 

 canvas shoes that lace well up around the 

 ankle : such as are worn l)y tennis and base 

 ball players, and cyclists. I find those with- 

 out heels, and having rubber soles, the light- 

 est and most comfortable. 



Have the trousers come just below the 

 knees, with canvas riding leggings to cover 

 the lower part of the legs. 



The coat that best suits me is a close fit- 

 ting jacket of light weight that buttons up 

 to the throat. 



The hat that approaches nearest to perfec- 

 tion, is the "helmet." It has visors front 

 and back and a ventilator all around be- 

 tween the rim and the inner band. It is 

 light and cool and protects both the eyes 

 and the back of the head and neck from the 

 sun. 



Such suits can be had in white or colored 

 "duck," and are light, cheap, washable and 

 serviceable, and, complete, or in part, are 

 worn by many cyclists and others. 



A bee veil added to the above hat is a mat- 

 ter of opinion. 



For a place to work in, let it be at least 

 partly shaded, grassed, and the grass kept 

 short. A scythe used every week or two an- 

 swers almost as well as a lawn mower. 



Stand the hives high enough so that you 

 will not break your back working over them. 

 Compromise with the "short-comings" of 

 the bees by giving them a broad, inclined 

 alighting board. 



