302 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 5 



All beekeepers, no matter how skillful they are in handling bees, re- 

 ceive occasional stings. To the inexperienced, the reaction may at 

 first be rather severe with considerable swelling and itching, but a 

 season's work with bees usually results in the development of some im- 

 munity against the venom. 



In a short time one should learn to handle bees with confidence and 

 seldom receive a sting. The beginner soon learns that bees are cross 

 and irritable on cold and cloudy days and that it is best to open the 

 hive when the weather is warm and the bees are busily engaged in 

 the fields. 



Each colony has its own individuality. One may be quiet and 

 gentle, while its next-door neighbor may be of a hot temperament. 

 The gentlest bees are not always best for honey production, but on the 

 other hand there is little pleasure in working with a colony that is 

 ever ready to sting — no matter how much honey it produces. 



It must be kept in mind that bees are undomesticated animals. The 

 average life of a worker bee during the active season of flight is only 

 about 6 weeks, so that little or nothing can be done to train them to do 

 what their owner wishes. By the same token there is no chance for 

 the bees to learn who their master is. An expert beekeeper can go 

 into a strange apiary and handle the bees with as much assurance 

 and confidence, and as good results as can the owner himself. It is 

 essential, therefore, to learn a few of the fundamental principles that 

 affect the reaction of bees. There are books and magazines galore de- 

 voted exclusively to the subject of helping the beekeeper master the 

 principal manipulations. 



Beekeeping is not all sweetness and honey. Like other types of live- 

 stock, bees are subject to several kinds of diseases. Some of these are 

 confined to brood (the young unemerged bees), and there are other 

 diseases that affect only the adult bees. Since some of the diseases are 

 contagious, careful check should always be kept of the colonies to see 

 that they are healthy. 



Each colony contains but one queen — the mother of all the bees ; her 

 importance to the welfare of the colony cannot be over-emphasized. 

 If the queen should fail because of age — and a queen may live 2 or 3 

 years — or because of illness, the population of the colony goes down 

 rapidly and may become so weak as to perish. The same persons who 

 furnish bees to beginners also supply extra queens, so that a new queen 

 may be obtained in short order to replace a failing one. 



The greatest mistake that beginners make is in not giving the bees 

 sufficient hive space in which to do the work that they can do. Often a 

 beginner, in an effort to keep his investment low, will try to maintain 

 the bees in a single-story hive. A good queen that can lay 1,500 eggs 

 a clay and maintain this rate for days at a time requires at least two 



