BEES, STINGLESS. 



67 



BEGINNING WITH BEES. 



PROF. II. A. SURFACE, ZOOLOGIST, AT HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, WITH HIS BEGIN- 

 NER CLASS IN BEE-KEEPING. 



They attacked their despoilers in a way 

 they will not soon forget. They would bite, 

 grasp the hair, eye-lashes, twist and pull, 

 and even crawl into the ears and nose of 

 their tormentors. So vicious was their on- 

 slaught that they drove one man, who had a 

 hand in breaking up their home, from the 

 scene of action. While the pain of their bite 

 ia infinitessimal, yet the high-note hissing 

 sound, getting into the hair, pulling at the 

 eyes and eye-lashes, and, crawling into the 

 nostrils and ears, almost makes one crazy. 



It is fair to state that stingless bees do not 

 offer such attack unless provoked to fury: 

 ordinarily they can be handled without any 

 protection whatever. 



BISi: ESCAPES. 



also Extracting. 



See Comb Honey, 



BEaiNBrma YtrZTH BEES. The 



beginner will find he will be able to under- 

 stand the articles in this work much more 

 readily if he can in some way manage to 

 visit a bee-keeper in his vicinity. If he can 

 afford it, it would be well for him even to go 

 some distance to see some progressive bee- 

 keeper, and spend a whole day where he will 

 be able to pick up tricks of the trade, and a 

 fund of information that might take him 

 weeks or months to dig out of text-books. 



I Even if he knows of no one but an old- 

 fashioned box-hive bee-keeper, he should 

 see him ; but, far better, visit some practical 

 man who will be able to point out the queen, 

 and illustrate the modus operandi of opening 

 a hive and handling the frames— in shorti 

 j make a practical demonstration of many of 

 j the manipulations here explained. If there 

 is no bee-keeper he can visit he should send 

 to his nearest dealer and get a one or two 

 frame nucleus with a queen. Let him follow 

 carefully the directions on the outside of the 

 shipping-box ; then, with the bees before 

 him, read and study his A B C's. Without 

 an actual demonstration of some soit, much 

 that is written here will otherwise be like 

 pure Greek to the average beginner in bees. 

 Having seen the bees, and learned how to 

 open a hive, what nextV 



We would strongly urge the importance 

 of a small beginning with as little expense 

 as possible ; for nothing is more discourag- 

 ing after having plunged into the business 

 extensively (blindfolded as it were) than to 

 lose a large portion of the bees, either 

 through bad wintering or from some other 

 cause — all for the want of a little practical 

 experience, or even a theoretical knowledge. 

 Many a person has met with disaster from 

 starting out with bees on altogether too 



