554 



GLKANINOS IN BEK (ITI/rrilK 



Sept. 1 



oFlg. 3. — When the team was in the flight of the bees the smoker was held in readiness should the horses 

 be stung. 



over the situation we decided to send down 

 one of our best bee-men who was also an ex- 

 pert in handling horses. He was equipped 

 with a .Jumbo smoker, prepared to make a 

 big smudge. The owner had already put on 

 his horses large horse-blankets of a porous 

 texture which we supplied last year. The 

 driver was i)rovided with a bee-veil, and then 

 our man was given instructions to follow the 

 team along that side of the field next to ihe 

 bee-yard, so that, if any trouble should de- 

 velop, he would be able to render assistance 

 to the driver. Thus prepared we were able 

 to handle the situation very easily, and in 

 the course of a couple of hours nectar began 

 to secrete, and the bees went merrily on to 

 the fields without molesting either man or 

 beast. 



The large coarse-netting blankets iirotect- 

 ed the backs and necks of the horses. The 

 rear flanks they could takecareof with their 

 tails, while a bee upon the face of the horse 

 could easily be brushed off. Apparently 

 bees seldom attack the legs or the under 

 side of the animals, so that about all that is 

 needed is a good-sized blanket with coarse 

 mesh so as not to be warm. 



Fig. 1 shows the high board fence next to 

 the bee-yard on the right, the self-binder 

 and our man clear to the end of the row. 

 Fig. 2 shows a nearer \iew of the whole out- 

 fit just as the team was about to turn the 

 corner; Fig. o, the position of the man up 

 near the heads of the horses. 



Strangely enough, the bees seemed to quiet 

 down after the man came. The trouble 

 seemed to be more aggraxated when the 

 team was close to the line fence on the first 

 round. As the grain was cut, the team 

 would walk further and further away from 

 the concentrated flight of the bees, hence 

 the trouble would minimize as the day wore 

 on. 



While, perhaps, it may not be good policy 

 to tell about bees stinging horses we think 

 it is the province of a bee-journal to warn 

 bee-keepers, and to show them how a situa- 

 tion of this kind can be handled in order to 

 avoid damage suits, to say nothing about 

 broken machinery and possible loss of life. 



Jn view of former trouble we have about 

 decided to move our bees late this fall away 

 from this line fence and place them near 

 the back end of the basswood orchard. At 

 this point there would be no open field. The 

 difficulty in our case seems to be because 

 some 60 or 70 strong colonies are massed 

 right along next to the high board fence. 

 The concentrated flight just as the bees 

 reach the fence seems to cause trouble when 

 a rapidly moving object like the binder-reel 

 passes through them. On the other side of 

 this same bee-yard there is an open pasture 

 lot on lower ground. There is never any 

 trouble there, because the yard is located on 

 high ground ; and the bees, in passing, com- 

 ing to and from the yard on that side, fly 

 high above any horses or cattle; but in the 

 view here shown the ground is higher, if 

 any thing, than the bee-yard. The bees fly 

 low, or just high enough to clear the grain. 

 When, therefore, horses with switching tails 

 and rapidly moving machinery pass through 

 them it is apt to cause a little disturbance, 

 especially if tlie bees are in bad humor in 

 consequence of the honey-flow having just 

 been shut otT. 



Heavy Wire for Supporting Foundation. 



I have been using baling-wire for splints for the 

 l)ast two years, with good success. I use the wedge 

 top-bar: insert wire with foundation in tlie groove: 

 drive in the wedge, and wax the wires down with 

 ihe \'an Deusen wax-tube. 



Metz, Cal.. .Inly 8. II. K Tiiavkk. 



