104 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



clothes of labouring men cannot be surpassed for the pur- 

 pose of stupefying bees. Let me ask the most timid bee- 

 keeper in the country to try it. Get a piece, the size of 

 a man's hand, rolled up rather tight and fired at one end 

 — not to blaze, but simply to smoke. Let him now place 

 the smoking end so close to the door of a hive that aU. 

 the smoke may go' in when he blows on it. After six or 

 eight puffs have been sent into the hive, let him lift it off 

 the board, turn it gently over, upside down, so that the 

 bees and combs stare him in the face. By holding and 

 moving the smoking end of the rags over the face of the 

 bees, and blowing the smoke amongst them, they run 

 helter-skelter down amongst the combs, far more afraid 

 than hurt. Now he can carry the hive round his garden 

 under his arm, and then carry it round the house, and 

 over it too if he choose, without being stung. Whenever 

 the bees are likely to rise they should be dosed again. 



If the reader has hitherto not dared to handle his bees 

 in this manner, we ask him to try the experiment, believ- 

 ing that he will be more than satisfied with the result, 

 for he will find that he has now got the mastery over his 

 bees, and can do what he likes with them. Yes, he will 

 be able to drive them out of a hive full of combs into an 

 empty one, and, moreover, shake them back, or tumble 

 them back, or spoonful them back, into the old hive or 

 another, as men take peas from one basket to another, 

 Nay, he wiU be able, after another lesson, to swarm his 

 bees artificially, and thank the Irishman for revealing the 

 virtues of corduroy-smoke. 



This smoke does not injure the health of the bees, does 

 not stop them from work more than two or three minutes. 

 The material of it is cheap and comeatable ; the use of it 

 is so easy and simple and efiicacious, that we have no wish 

 to find anything better for stupefying bees. Old calico 



