166 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



APPLIANCES AND HOW TO USE THEM. 



The advent of the bar-frame system of bee-keeping necessitated 

 the introduction of a number of other appliances, all more or 

 less necessary for manipulation either to avoid the open warfare 

 of the bees or to aid them in their labour, so as to adapt their 

 work to man's better convenience or to obtain their produce with 

 the least possible waste of beei-labour and bee-material. Apart 

 from the poetic side of bee-keeping, there is undoubtedly a phase 

 in it, whether it be indulged in as a hobby or as an industry, 

 which sorely tests the patience of both men and women bee- 

 keepers — not only their ,patience, but also their courage. Oft- 

 times when the bees have asserted their supremacy and put their 

 enemy to flight, they, the enemy, do not feel the retaliatory 

 courage necessary to renew the attack. Many a one whose heart 

 and soul has been in the idea of bee-keeping, whilst he has been 

 watching veteran bee-keepers handling their bees as if they 

 were so many flowers, has given up that idea when he attempted 

 to do likewise because the bees resented the amateur's interfer- 

 ence. Stings from bees are things that no one is desirous to in- 

 dulge in. 



The callous indifference of the practical bee-keeper, and the 

 contempt he has for the little warriors, is all brought about by 

 use — that is, by experience. We are told that we can get used to 

 anything. Proverb hath it that the very eels get used to being 

 skinned, so the practical bee-keepers get used to being stung, 

 i.e. their systems become inoculated against the virulency of bee- 

 poison, but in their apprenticing-days all necessary care had to 

 be taken before they could laugh at the danger arising from the 

 action of a bee's sting. 



Protection is the starting-point towards the consummation 

 of perfect success in the handling of bees. The first part of the 

 body that a bee tries to attack is the most vulnerable — the eye. 

 Why, I cannot tell you. Perhaps the brightness or the sheen of 

 it, or perhaps the quick movements of the eye and eyelids may 

 suggest to the bee a challenge. At the best of times it is not nice 

 to be stung about the eye. Between the eyes is one of the most 



