70 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Bee-keepers pride themselves upon not 

 being afraid of bees, or of not caring for 

 bee stings. We pity their vanit}-; and 

 say they owe a duty to others, if not to 

 themselves. Because a bee-keeper does 

 not care for stings, and is not afraid, does 

 not justify him in aggravating his bees; 

 nor in pursuing a course that will make 

 the Bee-Keepers' Union a necessary ad- 

 junct to keeping bees in towns. 



Every care should be taken to deport 

 one's self in such a way as not to excite 

 suspicion among the bees. Every bee- 

 keeper knows what bees like, and what 

 they do not like; knows if one gets into 

 his hair, that whether the bee stings or 

 not it must die; and that it will never die 

 without calling, by odor and sound, for 

 help and justice; and that very rarely will 

 the bee fail in communicating its troubles, 

 and in securing help. This fact should 

 demonstrate tht-t more care than is here 

 suggested would not be unprofitably be- 

 stowed. 



In handling bees, now and then a bee 

 will, upon the impulse of the moment, 

 dart out of the hive and sting the hands. 

 Right here allow me to say that a loose 

 pairofoldkid gloves, with the ends of 

 the thumb and index finger cut off, will 

 come to your aid. The bee vnll sting 

 your glove; and, as its sting holds it fast, 

 your smoker handy by will enable you to 

 quietly kill the bee, and smoke the glove 

 so as to get no more stings in the same 

 place. Such gloves are a great comfort 

 in keeping off the sun's heat, as well as 

 the stings of the bees. The stings will 

 sometimes reach through them, bui nol 

 enough to be serious. 



If I have shown that if bees are kind to 

 their keeper they will be kind to others, 

 my point has been gained. 



Enough cannot be said about smoke in 

 the town -apiary — or, for that matter, any 

 apiary. 



I have struggled for years to make 

 bee-keepers realize the extra value of a 

 cloud of smoke in the apiary; and I have 

 the great pleasure of knowing that those 

 struggles are having their effect. 



It is a great comfort to put a quart of chips 

 from the wood-shed into a smoker, and 

 know that its smoke will be ready for use 

 in walking through your streets of bees 

 at any time within three hours. 



The malicious manner in which bees 

 will sometimes follow one about suggests 

 the idea of .trapping them, when conven- 

 ient to do so. They will frequently fol- 

 low the bee-keeper into a doorway, and 

 allow him to close it after them, when, 

 of course, they fly to the wiiulow. Any 

 bee-keeper will not fail to realize his op- 

 portunit}' to get rid of them — not through 

 a Porter bee escape but the way of all 

 the earth. 



To kill them will save the lives of other 

 bees; and do away with one of the ob- 

 jections to keeping bees in towns. 



Farwe!.!,, Mich. Feb. i6, 1899. 



EXTRACTORS, HIVES AND HONEY-BOARDS. 



Some Long-Talked-of Improvements that 

 Turn out Well. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



E) 



EAR Review: 



silence, the spirit 

 moves me to have 

 a little chat with 

 you a n d y o u r 

 readers. T h e 



next issue of the 

 Review, after 

 your aggravat- 

 ingly short visit 

 with me, contain- 

 regarding what I was 

 goi7ig to do with my four-basket, automat- 

 ically reversible honey-extractor. There 

 is so great a difference between going-to- 

 bes and are-all-read3-s, that I wish to say 

 to you and your readers, that, according 

 to my talk w ith you, I made the improve- 



ed an editorial 



