92 EIGHTEEJSTTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



time there is no difference between the chemical composition of beet 

 sugar and cane sugar. 



Mr. Pitner. — I have some bees that my folks gathered together, 

 back of the house. They are very cross. The only way I can see is 

 to re-queen them. I am going to ask Mr. Millen to answer a question 

 for me, I want to ask one question, are you sure you could handle 

 those bees all right? 



Mr. Millen. — I have seen a great deal of difference in bees, 

 from the same apiary, that required different handling. I recall one 

 instance of a case in Canada, where the bee-keeper had sold that spring 

 about half of his bees to another bee-keeper and I inspected the half 

 that was sold and they were very gentle indeed, in fact, we hardly 

 needed a veil, or gloves or an other form of protection. Next day 

 I visited the man who had sold this half of the bees, a fine bright morn- 

 ing and very warm, in May, and the bee-keeper whom I visited then 

 started to put on heavy leather gauntlets and tied his pant-legs down 

 and his coat sleeves into the gauntlets, while I had my coat off and was 

 in shirt sleeves. He wanted to know if I was going into the apiary 

 that way and I said, "That is the usual way." He said, "Don't, 

 because the bees will get after you." Sometimes we receive those 

 warnings and we do not take any warnings, we realize the bee-keeper 

 does not alwa3'^s know, but this man had rendered himself so absolutely 

 bee-tight or sting-proof and I thought at first I had better take a little 

 warning, so I did put on leather gauntlets and put my coat on. We 

 could not go into the apiary at all without the bees stinging our leather 

 gauntlets and the leather on the smoker and when we opened the 

 colony, if the bees could have gotten at us we would have been stung 

 to death. Now, this was a case where that bee-keeper had used rough 

 methods all the time. He had always gone out with gauntlets and 

 made himself so sting-proof that he could not tell whether the bees 

 were stinging. The bees he had sold, just before that, were just as 

 gentle as the average colonies to handle. It makes an immense amount 

 of difference with an})- bees the way you handle them, but there are 

 some colonies, of course, that you cannot handle at all; that is the 

 exception rather than the rule. It depends almost entirely on ijje 

 manipulation of the bee-keeper. 



Mr. Pitner. — I want to say in explanation that I do not go at 

 them with leather gaunHets, I go afc them bare handed. I did go at 

 them first with gloves. I get plenty of stings on the hands but that 

 does not bother me. I protect my face, but I think that I am inclined 

 to be more or less nervous anyhow, but being among the bees makes 

 me more nervous than ever. 



The President. — Maybe your movements are a little too quick. 



Mr, Kildow. — I must tell another story. About two years ago, 

 it was along towards July, I visited a farmer bee-keeper who had bees 

 settling up on the side hill, about forty-five degrees, setting up among 

 the trees. I said, "What in the world have you got your bees up 

 there for, where you have to take a ladder to examine them? He said 

 he had had those bees set out in the orchard before, near the house, 

 and all at once the bees were stinging all over the place among the cattle 

 and all. Then he set them up on the side hill away above everything. 



