July 25, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



471 



No. 9. 



Practical Lessons for Beginners in Bee- 

 Culture. 



BY J. D. GEHKING. 



I BELIEVE it is safe to assert. Mr. Bond, that in all the 

 intelligent universe, so far as our knowledge extends, 

 there is not a creature so low in the scale of intelligence 

 that it does not in some degree appreciate human kindness, 

 gentleness, sympathy — all expressed in the word love. Of 

 course, it is easy to deny this statement ; but it is by no 

 means easy to prove it false, in theory and manifestation. 

 Only a moment's reflection brings before your mind the 

 fact that it requires but little effort on your part to make 

 your horse, j'our dog, or even one of your hogs, love you — 

 as far as an animal is capable of manifesting that quality 

 of intelligence." 



" But I came to the conclusion a few years ago that we 

 have no safe guide by which to draw the line of limitation, 

 in the scale of intelligence downward, beyond which we 

 find no evidence to support my statement, when I read in a 

 journal of science of a man in England who had trained 

 quite a number of fleas .' — to such an extent that he could 

 hitch them to a cart purposely made for them, and to draw 

 it, as horses do a wagon. And several other things he had 

 taught those little creatures to do — all by the constant and 

 persistent exercise of tact, patience and kindness toward 

 them. 



"I don't pretend to know how a flea can appreciate 

 human kindness — I am only speaking of the fact as 

 reported. I am convinced, however, mainly by personal 

 observation since I began to handle bees, that in some 

 mysterious way they can and do appreciate kind treatment. 

 In the same way I have also learned that they have a keen 

 appreciation or comprehension, of the other kind of treat- 

 ment ; and you know as well as I do how promptly and 

 effectively they resent it. 



"Looking at the matter, therefore, from the point of 

 view here indicated, Mr. Bond, it is surely not a waste of 

 time on mj' part to make the explanation of this principle 

 a feature of our lesson. 



"Several times, on various occasions, visiting friends 

 have asked me, when they saw me at work among my bees, 

 how I could do it all without getting stung to death. My 

 answer nearly always is, Because my bees know me. They 

 seem to know my touch. Possibly they also know my 

 voice. Certainly they know me by their keen sense of 

 smell. 



"Mark that last statement well, Mr. Bond," I con- 

 tinued, looking sharply into his eyes through the meshes of 

 his bee-veil as I spoke. "It is of greater importance than 

 )'OU may think ; not because it is a controverted propo- 

 sition among the most intelligent class of bee-keepers, but 

 because as a positive statement between you and me, it 

 implies that I mean it, that I believe it because I have been 

 convinced of its correctness by evidence that satisfied my 

 reason. 



" Yes, Mr. Bond," I continued, impressively, " it is one 

 of the articles of my bee-keeper's creed, that, Bees have a 

 keen sense of smell, and I'm not ashamed of it — neither am 

 I fanatical enough to be ready to fight for it. And — let me 

 tell 3'ou this in strict confidence, Mr. Bond — whenever I 

 hear of an intelligent, well-educated man who, as a pro- 

 fessed bee-keeper, denies, point-blank and on foot, that 

 article of my creed, I intuitively suspect him of all, or at 

 least some, of such unprofessional habits as the smoking 

 and chewing of tobacco, drinking of whiskey, and eating 

 of garlic and limburger cheese. 



" I know very well that it sounds like a silly paradox to 

 make a statement of that sort," I hastily commented, when 

 I saw through his veil a plainly outlined expression of 

 ironical incredulity upon his otherwise jovial face. " Be- 

 cause, the thought naturally suggests itself that the best 

 trained and most loving bees in the world would be sure to 

 ' go for ' such a man, hot-end foremost, if he ventured 

 within bee-smelling distance. I saj', the proposition nat- 

 urally assumes a paradoxical look of that sort. But the 

 paradox is at once seen to be a delusion, in a practical 

 sense, when I explain that it is because of that fact of the 

 bees refusing to own him as a friend, that a bee-keeper thus 

 guilty of offending their olfactory nerves persists in deny- 

 ing that the sense of smell is an inherent part of bee- 

 nature. They do go for him. 



" I fear I have wasted time in an effort to make you see 

 the point of my argument, which I can so plainly see and 

 feel. But, nevertheless, I trust that mv effort to handle a 



delicate subject through the texture of the proverbial ' kid 

 gloves ' is not wholly lost." 



This conciliatory comment was offered because I knew 

 that my friend and pupil was guilty of the tobacco habit ; 

 though not of the other two. 



" Beg your pardon for this digression, Mr. Bond, and 

 for keeping you waiting to proceed with the drone-lesson. 

 If you'll now examine the smoker to see that it is in work- 

 ing order, we will finish taking off that super. Of course, 

 you remember mj' caution not to lift before you are sure 

 you have a secure hold at both ends, and to be careful not 

 to crush any bees when you set the super down." 



Following my directions, Mr. Bond lifted one end of 

 the super high enough above the frames so that he could 

 blow a little smoke underneath it among the bees, to pre- 

 vent them from making a demonstration when the super 

 was finally lifted clear of the hive. 



" This as a precaution," I explained. " It is better to 

 do that, though it's a little more trouble because you must 

 handle the smoker and one end of the super at the same 

 time. You see, if you lift the super suddenly, the bees 

 underneath are startled, not knowing what is going to hap- 

 pen, and, as a rule, they make a rush. The result is that 

 often, before you can properly take care of the heavy 

 super — supposing it to be full of honey — and get back to 

 the hive, thousands of the bees are flying just where you 

 want to take your stand to do the work you came there to 

 do. To say the least, it may cause some unneccessary 

 annoyance to have it that way. But there are times and 

 circumstances when something very much worse than 

 annoyance may be the result. As, for instance : the entire 

 colony may become alarmed and assume a belligerent atti- 

 tude, especially when you are handling old bees, and at a 

 time when there is only a light honey-flow. Or, the colo- 

 nies nearest the hive you are working at may be aroused by 

 the alarm-signal given by the flying bees. In that case 

 they will first mingle with those in the air to investigate 

 the cause of the commotion ; but, almost invariably in 

 such an instance, these neighbor-meddlers will next pro- 

 ceed to investigate the open hive, with the result, well- 

 known to all practical bee-keepers, that you have a case of 

 robbing on your hands when you were least expecting it. 



" I am telling you all this at this time, Mr. Bond, in 

 order that you may be on your guard for such emergencies 

 whenever in the future you have a job like this to do. ' An 

 ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,' applies 

 here, Mr. Bond, in the sense that a little precaution, with 

 a little smoke judiciously applied, will often prevent — well, 

 it's hard telling what not. Every experienced bee-keeper 

 will endorse that, I think. 



"Now for the drones," I said, after Mr. Bond had 

 deposited the super, without crushing bees or getting stings 

 on his hands, and had returned to my side near the hive. 



"Please take this prying instrument " — handing him 

 my old chisel — " and show me how nicely, carefully and 

 gently you can loosen the ends of those brood-frames with 

 it without alarming the bees. They are all glued fast, 

 more or less securely, hence you must avoid sudden snaps 

 and jerks." 



Mr. Bond took the chisel and bravely began the job. 

 He was getting along very well until he reached the last 

 frame. The bees had done a little more work on that, seem- 

 ingly, than elsewhere, and as a consequence my friend had a 

 little more trouble with it, and was obliged to use a little 

 more force to loosen it. Ouite suddenly — as such mishaps, 

 especially in the apiary, always do happen — his chisel 

 slipped and down went the frame with a bang. Before I 

 had time to use the smoker, or he to realize what had hap- 

 pened, about a score of bees make a dive at his naked 

 hands. Fortunately, I had told him the day before that 

 when ever bees did that, to keep his hands perfectly still 

 for a moment and not to jerk them back ; for if he did that 

 they would surely sting. This he now remembered and put 

 into practice, with the result that, though most of the 

 assaulting bees went through the maneuvre of stinging, 

 not one of them made earnest of it. 



"Good! good 1" I shouted approvingly. "Now you 

 are initiated, Mr. Bond. That kind of an experience is to 

 a bee-keeper recruit what the first charge in the first battle 

 is to an army recruit. I think yon can stand fire now, Mr. 

 Bond, when you and any man's bees get into a fracas. 



"Go ahead now and lift those frames out for inspec- 

 tion. You can do it as well as I can. Begin with the one 

 you have just loosened and hand it to me ; I want to see 

 whether there is any drone-brood on it or not." 

 iTo be continued.) 



