THE BEE-KEEPERS' KEVIEW. 



or villaso. I investigated a case last 

 year in wiiicli the bee-keeper was 

 decidedly to hlanie. He even went so 

 far as to stir up liis hyl)rids purposely 

 on hot afternoons, that he ndght hoot 

 and jeer at his neighbors when they 

 had to "'cut for the house." Then he 

 boast(Ml that he belonged to the Na- 

 tional Association, a thousand strong, 

 whi<h would stand by him. It stood 

 by him by advising him to move his 

 bees out of the village. Of course, 

 this is an extreme case; but we all 

 know that, even with the best of man- 

 agement, that bees will sometimes 

 prove an annoyance, if not a nuisance. 

 A neighborly spirit on the part of the 

 bee-ke(^per, a willingness to do all in 

 his power to lessen the annoyance, 

 puts neighbors in a mood than en- 

 ables them to bear annoyance some- 

 Avhat philosophically. For several 

 years I kept bees, sometimes as many 

 as no colonies, in this city, with 

 neighltors all around nu>. The back 

 door of one neighbor was not more 

 than two rods from the bees, yet there 

 was never a word of complaint that 

 reached my ears. In the first place, 

 I kept good natured, pure Italian 

 bees. Except during the hone.v har- 

 ^ est, I never opened a hive in the 

 middle of the day. All work at such 

 times was done after the bees had 

 stopped flying at night. By the next 

 morning everything was (piiet. An- 

 other thing, and it is important. I al- 

 ways subdued the bees with smoke 

 before handling them, if it was at a 

 time when they were likely to be 

 cross. Although this is a digression, 

 I wish to say here that I visited an 

 apiary a few days ago in which the 

 owner was overhauling the colonies. 

 and putting on supers, without the 

 use of any smoke, and there was -i 

 small-sized swarm of fairly franlic 

 bees in the air. The bees in othtn- 

 apiaries visited that day, apiaries in 



which smoke had been used .iudicions- 

 ly, were (luiet and peacealjle, and 

 there was no necessity for using a 

 veil. 



But, to return, I was alwa.ys cai'eful 

 not to take the bees from the cellar 

 ni a time when there were any wash- 

 ings on the line. Broken honey and 

 untiiuslu'd sections found their way 

 to tables of the neighbors. This honey 

 was not given in such a way as to 

 leave any feeling of obligation, or 

 that I was trying to buy their for- 

 bearance. If given in that way, it 

 would often fall short of apcomplish- 

 ing the desired object. A large plat- 

 ter of l)its of nice, white, but broken 

 bits of honey, would be carried to a 

 neighbor's, and presented aboiit as fol- 

 lows: 'Tilrs. Brown, here are some 

 bits of comb honey that I saved out 

 when transferring a colony of bees 

 .vesterda.v. We have had all that we 

 cared for, and I thought your boys 

 might en.loy this, so I brought it over." 

 Of course, the boys, and the old folks, 

 too, en.ioy it. and if one of the said 

 boys should happen to step upon a 

 bee, later in the season, and be stung 

 on his bare foot, the remembrance of 

 that honey seems to go a great ways 

 in keeping down the pain and swell- 

 ing. I have had neighboring women 

 take pains to come a l)lock or two to 

 let me know that a swarm of bees 

 was hanging on a bush. Of course, 

 these neighbors were always remem- 

 bered with sections of honey. 



Among the other good things that 

 ;Mr. France has done, is that of get- 

 ting out a leaflet in which this matter 

 of lessening the annoyance from bees, 

 and of keeping in harmony with 

 neighbors, is pointed out at length, 

 and practical instructions as to how 

 the annoyances may be lessened or 

 al)ated. Every bee-keeper keeping bees 

 ne;ir a village, or even near some one's 

 home, should read and heed the advice 



