STINGS. 



411 



STINGS. 



position to meddle or hang around their 

 neighbors' homes. Tiiis is one reason wli)' 

 bystanders at a little distance are so mneli 

 more apt to be stung than tlie apiarist who 

 is right among them. 



JERKING THE HANDS V.ACK. 



A good many times, especially where bees 

 seem malicionsly inclined, as you proceed to 

 lift the frame three or i'our will strike against 

 the hands, feinting to sting. Tlie natural 

 tendency, of course, is to jerk back the hand. 

 This is the worst thing that you can do, en- 

 suring a sting; whereas by holding j'our 

 hands motionless to let the bees see that the 

 new objects are not afraid they will rarely if 

 ever go beyond a pretense of using their 

 weapon. It is certain a large number of 

 stings received by beginners on the hands are 

 attributable to this jerking-back of the hands. 

 Tlie same is true in reference to the face, 

 Avlien unprotected by a veil. Nine-tenths of 

 the bees which make such demonstration 

 will not sting if you control your nerves, let- 

 ting your tormentors know that you can not 

 be frightened. 



TO OPEN A niVE WITHOUT BEING STUNG. 



Have your smoker lighted and in good 

 trim, then set it down near the hive you in- 

 tend to examine. Now, we never use smoke 

 on bees unless needful to subdue them; for 

 why should we annoy the little fellows quiet- 

 ly going about their household duties unless 

 obliged to? We frequently open hive after 

 hive with no kind of use for smoke at all, 

 and yet we often see bee-keepers drive the 

 poor little chaps down to tlie bottom of the 

 hive with great volumes of smoke, when 

 they have not shown the least symptom of 

 any disposition but the most friendly. It is 

 true, where the colony is very large, the bees 

 sometimes pile up in the way, on the rabbets 

 and ends of the frames, so that it becomes 

 desirable to drive them off for their own 

 safety. This requires very little smoke; and 

 if you are in no great hurry they will clear 

 out of the way if you just pat them on the 

 backs gently with a weed or bit of grass. 

 When bees are disposed to be cross, and show 

 fight, you will readily discover it the minute 

 you turn up the first corner of the cloth cov- 

 ering; and if it takes smoke to make them 

 beg pardon, give it to them only in small 

 quantities until you are sure more is needed. 

 See Frames, How to Manipulate. 



WHAT kind OE bees STING AVORST, 



The general decision now is, that pure Ital- 

 ians, Caucasians, and Carniolans are the most 

 easily handled See Bees. Not only do 



they sting less, but as they keep their places 

 on the combs without getting excited* when 

 the hives are opened properly, they are far 

 less likely to get under one's clothing than 

 common bees. A great many stings are re- 

 ceived from bees that are in no way badly 

 disposed at all, simply fiom getting pinched 

 accidentally, while on the ])erson of the bee- 

 keeper. The pure races may be handled all 

 day, with no such mishap; but after working 

 among the old-fashioned blacks or hybrids 

 we often find a dozen or more under the coat, 

 in the sleeves, if they can get up, and, worst 

 of all, up the trousers, unless the precaution 

 has been taken to tuck them into the boots 

 or stockings when wearing low shoes. See 

 Veils. This one thing alone would decide 

 one in favor of the Itali;iiis, if they were 

 simply equal to the blacks in other re- 

 spects. Hybrids, as before stated, are worse 

 to sting than either of the races when pure; 

 while Cyprian and Holy-Land bees are so 

 much worse still, that sometimes smoke has 

 no effect on them. See Cyprians, under 

 Italians; also Bees. 



It may be well to add, that we find many 

 exceptions to these rules; a colony of blacks 

 will sometimes be much easier to handle 

 than one of Italians in the same yard; and 

 the progeny of a queen that we may have 

 every other reason to call pure may be as 

 cross as the worst hybrids. Still further: A 

 very cross colony of bees may be so educat- 

 ed, by careful treatment, as to become very 

 gentle, and vice versa. The colony in front 

 of the door of the honey-house was always a 

 gentle one, season after season; the explana- 

 tion being that they became accustomed to 

 the continual passing and repassing of the 

 bee-keeper in front of their hive, and learned 

 to be dodging past some one almost all the 

 time. On the contrary, those located in the 

 remote corners of the apiary are very apt to 

 sting, if you just come round to take a view 

 of their entrance. Egyptian bees are said 

 to be much worse than any of the other 

 races; and as they do not yield to smoke, as 

 do others, they have been discarded princi- 

 pally on account of this unpleasant feature. t 



bee-sting POISON. 



When bees are very angry and elevate that 

 portion of their bodies containing the sting, 



*Queenless bees are not as tiuiet. It may be 

 bejttuse they seldom work with energy, and have 

 therefore no fresh accumulation of stores, which 

 tend so much to put bees on their srood behavior. 

 .All bees are much worse after a sudden stoppajre 

 of nectai' secretion, especially after a basswijotl 

 or buckwiieat flow. 



+ Carniolans liave tlio reputation of being very 

 gentle, but we think no iiioi-e so than Italians. 



