BEES AS A NUISANCE. 



63 



BEES AS A NUISANCE. 



across the way " sweetened up." Ninety- 

 uine neighbors out of a hundred will put up 

 with a great deal of inconvenience, and say, 

 " Oh ! that is all right. It won't take long 

 to rinse out the clothes again." 



Take, for example, more serious cases — 

 where horses or cattle have been stung. If 

 you have been foolish enough to place hives 

 near the highway or your neighbor's line 

 fence where he has loose stock, you may 

 have to pay pretty dearly for it before you 

 get through. The remedy is prevention. 

 Always pat bees in a back yard, and not too 

 close to your neighbor's line fence. Be care- 

 ful, also, to prevent robbing. See that there 

 are no weak nuclei with entrances too large. 

 As soon as the honey-flow stops, contract 



occasions. We supplied our neighbor with 

 clover seed for this Held ; and when he came 

 to cut the crop the horses woidd occasional- 

 ly be stung while drawing the mower. In 

 one case there came very near being a sei"i- 

 ous mixup, as the team came very near run- 

 ning away with the mowing-machine. 



Two years later, corn was planted in this 

 same held. When the horses were cultivat- 

 ing up and down the rows they were attacked 

 again by the bees, for they were going in 

 great droves across this field to a patch of 

 clover beyond. Notwithstanding we had a 

 high board fence to raise the flight of the 

 bees above the team when near our yard, 

 there was more or less trouble. On one oc- 

 casion the driver was stung pretty severely 



SCHEME FOR PROTECTING HORSES WHILE CULTIVATING A FIELD NEXT TO A BEE- YARD 



the entrances of all the w^eaker colonies. If 

 extracting is done after the honey flow, great 

 caution needs to be exercised. The extract- 

 ing-room should be screened off, and bee- 

 escapes provided. Wherever possible, take 

 off all surplus by the use of bee-escapes rath- 

 er than by shaking. See Robbing and Ex- 

 tracting. 



what to do when bees attack neigh- 

 bors' horses. 



But it sometimes happens that something 

 must be done at once to avert an attack up- 

 on teams of horses working in fields adjoin- 

 ing a bee-yard. We have one outyard locat- 

 ed near a field where our neighbor's horses 

 have been attacked by the bees on several 



and the animals became unmanageable. 

 Fortunately the driver got them under con- 

 trol without any serious consequences. 



Now, our neighbor is a kindly man ; and 

 when he telephoned what had happened we 

 saw that something would have to be done. 

 We told him to go to the harness-shop and 

 secure some large horse-blankets that would 

 cover the necks and backs of the horses, and 

 we would pay the bill. We then directed 

 him to secure some large squares of mos- 

 quito-netting and fold this around the 

 horses' heads. In the meantime we supplied 

 him with veils for himself and man. 



When the next day came tor cultivating, 

 the blankets were put on and we went down 



