SPRING MANAGEMENT. 



404 



STINGS. 



bees are in the celLir, should take place be- 

 fore they are set out. See Uniting. 



One difficulty in uniting outdoor bees is 

 tliat those moved to a new stand are quite 

 inclined to go back to the old hive. This 

 can be overcome to a certain extent. See 

 Uniting. Uniting in the spring is often 

 unsatisfactory. Unless the colony is very 

 weak we advise taking out the surplus of 

 combs that they do not occupy or use, and 

 crowd the little cluster on as few frames as 

 they can occupy. In that ca-e, division- 

 boards should be moved over, and the frames 

 set over on the other side. The hive should 

 be warmly packed, and the entrance con- 

 tracted down to one inch wide to prevent 

 robbing and to conserve the heat. 



In going over the yard in early spring one 

 is likely to find, if the bees are wintered out- 

 doors, one or more dead colonies. Their en- 

 trances should be shut up bee-tight, for on 

 the first warm fly day they will be robbed 

 out by the other bees, resulting in a general 

 disturbance of the whole yard. See Rob- 

 bing. Combs on which bees have died may 

 be used later on by putting fresh bees on 

 them. Unless they are very badly soiled 

 with dysentery so they are fairly smeaied 

 over with a brown excrement, or the stores 

 are very bad, they can be used again. But 

 badly soiled combs, or otherwise undesir- 

 able, should be put through the wax-extrac- 

 tor. See Wax; also Dysentery. 



In early spring it maybe necessary to rake 

 out the dead bees in the entrances of :^ome 

 colonies. If a colony is strong it will usual- 

 ly do its own house-cleaning; but somet.mes 

 the dead accumulate in such numbers as ac- 

 tually to block the entrance. In all such 

 cases there is danger that the few survivors 

 may die outright. 



Some very weak colonies will be found 

 with queens, while there will be some other 

 colonies fairly strong without any queen. 

 In that case it is best to unite these two, 

 moving the weak colony over to the stiong 

 one. SeeUNiriNTG; also Introducing. 



Some experienced bee-keepers can •'si)read 

 brood" in early spring; but the beginner 

 had better not practice it. See Spreading 

 Brood. 



STINGLESS BEES. 



LE-<S. 



See Bees, Sting- 



STING-S. It is true, that bees can not 

 bite and kick like horses, nor can they hook 

 like cattle; yt- 1 most people, after having had 

 an experience with bee-stings for the first 

 time, are inclined to think they would rather 



be bitten, kicked, and hooked, all together, 

 than to take the risk of a repetition of that 

 keen and exquisite anguish which one feels 

 as he receives the full contents of the poison- 

 bag from a vigorous hybrid during the height 

 of the honey-season. Stings are not all alike, 

 by any means; and while we can stand the 

 greater part of them without even wincing, 

 or stopping our work, we occasionally get 

 one that seems as if it could not possibly be 

 borne. Always obliged to bear it, however, 

 we do so as best we can. 



The pain is much harder to bear if we stop 

 to allow our minds to dwell on it; or after 

 being stung, if we just think of former times 

 when we received painful stings, at the 

 mere thought a sudden pang darts along the 

 wounded part. We do not know why this is, 

 unless it is the effect of the imagination; if 

 so, then it is clear that even imaginary pains 

 are very hard to bear. We have sometimes 

 purposely, by way of experiment, allowed 

 the mind to dwell on the pain of the sting the 

 moment it was inflicted, and the increase 

 would be such that it would almost make 

 one scream with pain. If you doubt this, the 

 next time your feet get very cold, just think 

 of wading barefooted in the frozen snow, at 

 a zero temperature. 



Of course, where stings swell on one so 

 badly as to shut an eye, or the like of that, 

 one possibly might be obliged to stop work 

 awhile; but even then, it would be advis- 

 aljle to pay as little attention to the matter 

 as possible, and by all means avoid rub- 

 bing or irritating the affected part. We 

 have known stings to be made very painful 

 by rubbing and fussing with them which we 

 have good reason to think would have given 

 little if any trouble otherwise. You all know 

 that, when you get warmed up with hard 

 work, a bruise, a bump, or a slight flesh 

 wound, gives little if any pain ; but to sit 

 down calmly and cut into one's flesh gives 

 the most excruciating pain. When young 

 we repeatedly cut great gashes on the fin- 

 gers with a jack-knife, and felt but little 

 pain at the time; but when it became neces- 

 sary to lance the flesh to get a sliver out of 

 the foot, or to cut open a stone-bruise, the 

 pain was most intense. 



To pare away with the razor until you get 

 through the skin, and see the blood start — 

 why, it makes the flesh creep to think of it 

 now; but the clips that came unawares with 

 the dull jack-knife were scarcely heeded at 

 all, more than to tie up the wound to keep 

 the blood from soiling the work. Well, the 

 point is, we are to take stings just as we 



