American "Bee Journal 



this way far better than can be done 

 when the frames are set down on the 

 ground outside the hive. If the bees 

 show that they are becoming obstrep- 

 erous at any time, a few more pufifs of 

 smoke will quell them, and your nec- 

 essary work will be done without stings 

 or arousing the colony to a pitch that 

 will be shown by their coming at you 

 whenever you pass the hive for the next 

 ten days. 



Now I do not want to leave the im- 

 pression that this much smoke and 

 then slow movements are required on 

 all colonies. This is for " off days," 

 for colonies known to be vindictive, 

 and more especially for a beginner 

 when making his first efforts at hand- 

 ling bees. On bright days, when nec- 

 tar is coming in, the usual procedure 

 is to carefully raise the cover, blowing 

 a little smoke in the crack when first 

 made, when the cover is set beside the 

 hive and the frames handled and the 

 needed work done with any part of the 

 hive, closing the same in less time than 

 it has taken to tell how it is done. If 

 there is anything that needs care, more 

 than all else toward avoiding stings, it 

 is that no bee be'mangled and killed 

 through our manipulation. Few, if any 

 colonies, are so peaceable that they 

 will not resent, to the stinging point, 

 having their sisters rolled and mangled 

 as the frames of comb are lifted out 

 and returned to the hive, and having 

 from one to a dozen of their fellow 

 workers crushed and killed when the 

 cover to the hive is put on, as many do 

 without first driving the bees off the 

 joints where more or less of the colony 



congregate while we are at work. I 

 have often wished, when in apiaries 

 where the joints between the covers 

 and hives were " carpeted " with dead 

 bees which had accumulated from those 

 killed with each manipulation, that the 

 operator was obliged to take a sting 

 for every bee killed in this way, believ- 

 ing that such stings would show such 

 a one that it would be more humane 

 to take a little time to drive the bees 

 from this death trap made for them 

 every time a hive was closed. 



Regarding bees stinging some peo- 

 ple more than others, there is some- 

 thing in it ; but what that something 

 is, I have never been able to tell. I 

 used all means I knew of some 30 years 

 ago to get a man stung, punishing my- 

 self with stings beyond measure, but 

 not a sting did he get. I was veiled 

 perfectly, while he had no protection 

 of any kind. 



Again I hired another man to work 

 in my garden 15 rods away from the 

 nearest colony in the apiary, and at a 

 time when the bees were not at all 

 cross, when white clover was yielding 

 nectar so that I could work all day in 

 the bee-yard without a sting, and in 

 less tlian 10 minutes this man was 

 stung twice. I got out the stings and 

 set him at work behind the barn, out of 

 sight of the bee-yard and 20 rods away. 

 Soon he came in the barn with three 

 more stings, and said he could never 

 work anywhere near bees, and quit me 

 altogether. 



The farmer on whose land is my out- 

 apiary will come from his work, at any 

 and all times, with sleeves rolled up, 



and often wet with perspiration, sit 

 right down on a hive next to the one I 

 work on, with bare arms and face, and 

 get a sting not more than twice in a 

 season, while the bees are often so 

 cross when an off day comes, and I am 

 obliged to work rapidly, that they sting 

 through my clothing. A few will hover 

 about him, one or two get in his whis- 

 kers, which he will carefully pick out, 

 look at them and then let them go ; 

 when I would be stung blind were I 

 not fully veiled. The why of this I do 

 not know. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Fastening Alexander Feeders 



BY E. S. MILES. 



I WONDER how many readers of 

 the American Bee Journal use the 

 Alexander feeders, and what meth- 

 ods are used to keep them attached 

 to the hives ? I have known ex- 

 tensive bee-keepers to use nails to at- 

 tach them to the bottom-board or to 

 the hive. A nail always makes a hole, 

 and a leak sooner or later — a thing not 

 desirable in a feeder. When I first be- 

 gan using these feeders, 7 or 8 years 

 ago, I studied this matter, and hit upon 

 the following device which has worked 

 well with me, and I would like those 

 who have no good way of attaching 

 these feeders to make a few of these 

 and give them a trial : 



The device, as shown by the accom- 

 panying cut, is simply a piece of strong 

 wire bent with a hook at one end long 



