Comforts and Conveniences in the Apiary. 



Y THESE are meant those 

 things not absolutely essential 

 to success, but that serve to 

 render more smooth and pleas- 

 ant the somewhat "thorny" path trod- 

 den by the bee-keeper. To illustrate: 

 H. R. Boardman has a cart, for carrying 

 bees to and from his bee cellar, with 

 which there is no necessity for even lift- 

 ing the hives to place them on the cart. 

 It is made like a^ wheel barrow with two 

 wheels, and having two long prongs pro- 

 jecting in front. When the cart is wheel- 

 ed up to a hive, one prong goes one side 

 of the hive and the other goes the other 

 side, when, by depressing the handles, 

 the hive is lifted from the ground; cleats 

 upon the sides of the hive prevent it from 

 slipping down between the projecting 

 prongs. Mr. J. A. Green has an arrange- 

 ment for opening the honey house door 

 by simply stepping upon a pedal. When 

 both hands are occupied with tools, a 

 case of honey, or something of that sort, 

 such an arrangement is quite a comfort. 

 Mr, Green is also the man who keeps 

 kerosene oil in a spring bottom oil can to 

 squirt on the fuel in a smoker when 

 "firing up." 



Most of theSe comforts are compara- 

 tively inexpensive. To think of and 

 secure them is often more work than to 

 earn the money with which to buy them, 

 but their ppsses.sion often makes all the 

 difference between a season of pleasure 

 and one bordering on drudgery, to say 

 nothing of the bearing they may have 

 upon the profit. These little helps and 



conveniences are, in one sense, the oil 

 that makes the great apicultural machine 

 move smoothly, and I believe it worth 

 while to enumerate a few of them. 



I will begin with the bee-keeper him- 

 self, or rather with his clothing, as his 

 comfort is largely depended upon that. 

 When there is very much shaking and 

 brushing of bees to be done I prefer to 

 wear light calf skin boots with the trous- 

 ers tucked inside. When shoes are worn, 

 the trousers must be tucked inside the 

 stockings, or tied up with a string, (which 

 looks so outlandish) or else "dose inno- 

 cent pees vas grawling mine trousers 

 amoung, ' ' which begets a feeling far from 

 comfortable. I don't believe in sacrific- 

 ing very much comfort for the sake of 

 appearances, but I couldn't be comforta- 

 ble working day after day tricked out 

 like a clown or scare-crow. Mr. Arthur 

 C. Miller suggests the wearing of canvas 

 shoes that lace well up around the ankle, 

 such as are worn by tennis and base 

 ball players and cyclists. Then he would 

 have the trousers come just below the 

 knee, with canvas leggings to cover up 

 the lower part of the legs. His ideal 

 coat is a close fitting jacket of lightweight 

 that buttons up to the throat. The hat 

 that approaches the nearest to perfection 

 in his opinion is the helmet. It has vis- 

 ors front and back and a ventilator all 

 around between 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 as 

 those described by Mr, Miller can be had 



