TO QUIET BEES.
In harvest seasons, the bees, especially if Italians, can almost always be handled without their showing resentment. But at other times, and whenever they object to necessary familiarity, we have only to cause them to fill with honey to render them harmless, unless we pinch them. This can be done by closing the hive so that the bees cannot get out, and then rapping on the hive for four or five minutes. Those within will fill with honey, those without will be tamed by surprise, and all will be quiet. Sprinkling the bees with sweetened water will also tend to render them amiable, and will make them more ready to unite, to receive a queen, and less apt to sting. Still another method, more convenient, is to smoke the bees. A little smoke blown among the bees will scarcely ever fail to quiet them, though I have known black bees in autumn, to be very slow to yield. Dry cotton cloth, closely wound and sewed or tied, or better, pieces of dry, rotten wood, are excellent for the purpose of smoking. These are easily handled, and will burn for a long time. But best of all is a
BELLOWS-SMOKER.
This is a tin tube attached to a bellows. Cloth or rotten wood can be burned in the tube, and will remain burning a long time. The smoke can be directed at pleasure, the bellows easily worked, and the smoker used without any disagreeable effects or danger from fire. It can be got from any dealer in bee apparatus, and only costs from $1.25 to $2.00. I most heartily recommend it to all.
There are two smokers in use, which I have found very valuable, and both of which are worthy of recommendation.
THE QUINBY SMOKER.
This smoker ([Fig, 63, a]) was a gift to bee-keepers by the late Mr. Quinby, and not patented; though I supposed it was, and so stated in a former edition of this work. Though a similar device had been previously used in Europe, without doubt Mr. Quinby was not aware of the fact, and as he was the person to bring it to the notice of bee-keepers, and to make it so perfect as to challenge the attention and win the favor of apiarists instanter, he is certainly worthy of great praise, and deserving of hearty gratitude. This smoker, until a better one appeared, was a very valuable and desirable instrument. Its faults were, lack of strength, too small a fire-tube, too little draft when not in use, so that the fire would go out, and too great liability to fall over on the side, when the fire was sure to be extinguished. Many of these defects, however, have been corrected, and other improvements made in a new smoker, called the Improved Quinby ([Fig, 63, b]).
Fig. 63.
