56 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



hap ; but after working among blacks or hy- 

 brids, I often find a dozen or more under my 

 coat, up my sleeves, if they can get up, and 

 worst of all, up my trousers, if I have not 

 taken the precaution to tuck them into my 

 boots, or stockings when I wear low shoes. 

 See bee dress. Well, I believe this one 

 thing alone would decide me in favor of the 

 Italians, if they, were simply equal to the 

 blacks in other respects. The hybrids, as I 

 have before stated, are much worse to sting 

 than either of the races when pure. 



It may be well to add, that we find many 

 exceptions to these rules ; a hive of blacks 

 will sometimes be much easier to handle 

 than a hive of Italians in the same yard, and 

 the progeny of a queen that we may have 

 every other reason to call pure, may be as 

 cross as the worst hybrids. Still farther; a 

 very cross swarm of bees may be so educa- 

 ted, by careful treatment, as to become very 

 gentle, and vice versa. The colony in front 

 of the door of the honey house is always a 

 gentle one, season after season ; the explana- 

 tion of it is that they become accustomed to 

 the continual passing and repassing of the 

 bee-keeper in front of their hive, and learn 

 to be dodging past some one almost all the 

 time. On the contrary, those bees that are 

 in the remote corners of the apiary are very 

 apt to sting you, if you just come round to 

 take a view of their entrance. The Egyp- 

 tian bees are said to be very much worse 

 than any of the other races, and as they do 

 not yield to smoke, as do others, they 

 have been discarded, principally on account 

 of this unpleasant feature. 



THE BEE STING POISON. 



When bees are very angry, and elevate 

 that portion of their bodies containing the 

 sting, you will often see a tiny drop of some 

 transparent liquid on the point of the sting. 

 This liquid is the poison of the bee sting. It 

 has a sharp, pungent taste, and when thrown 

 in the eyes, as often happens, it has a sting- 

 ing, acrid feeling, as if it might be a com- 

 pound of cayenne pepper, onion juice, and 

 horse-radish combined, and one who tastes it 

 or gets it in his eyes concludes it is not so 

 very strange that such a substance, intro- 

 duced into the circulation, produces such ex- 

 quisite pain. The poison of the bee sting 

 has been shown to be similar in composition 

 to that of the viper and scorpion ; but at the 

 present writing, I cannot learn that any 

 chemist has ever given us an analysis that 

 would tell us just what the poison is. The 

 acid obtained from ants is called formic acid, 

 and I have wondered whether that from bee 



stings is not similar, if not the same. It is 

 probably a vegetable acid, secreted from the 

 honey and pollen that constitutes their food, 

 and it is well known that the poison is much 

 more pungent, when the bees are working in 

 the fields and accumulating stores largely, 

 than it is when they are at rest in the winter 

 months. It is generally during basswood 

 bloom, that we get those severe stings which 

 draw the blood and show a large white spot 

 around the wound. 



HOW IT IS DONE. 



It is quite an interesting experiment to 

 let a bee sting you on the hand, and then 

 coolly observe the whole performance, with- 

 out disturbing him. When a boy wishes to 

 jump across a brook, he usually goes back a 

 few feet, and takes a little run ; well, a bee 

 when he introduces the point of his sting, 

 prefers to make a short run or dash, or he 

 may fail in lodging the barbs of the sting se- 

 curely in the fiesh. I do not believe a bee 

 can very well get up the necessary energy to 

 sting, unless he is under the influence of 

 some excitement. I have sometimes, in try- 

 ing to see how far I could go with an angry 

 colony of bees without the use of smoke, had 

 a lot of them strike my face with a sudden 

 dash, but as I kept perfectly still, they would 

 alight without stinging. Now the slightest 

 movement, even an incautious breath, would 

 result in some pretty severe stinging ; but if 

 I kept cool and quiet, and carefully walked 

 away, I might escape without any stiugs at 

 all. Very often, a single bee will work him- 

 self up to a sufficient passion, to try to sting, 

 but to commence while standing still, I have 

 always found to be rather difficult work for 

 them, and although they sometimes prick 

 slightly and give one a touch of the poison, 

 they seldom sting very severely, without 

 taking wing again. To go back ; after the 

 bee has penetrated the flesh on your hand, 

 and pumped the sting so deeply into the 

 fiesh as to be satisfied, he begins to find that 

 he is a prisoner, and to consider means of 

 escape. They usually get smashed at about 

 this stage of proceedings, unless they suc- 

 ceed in tearing the sting— poison bag and all 

 —from the body; however, if allowed to do 

 the work quietly, they seldom do this, know- 

 ing that such a proceeding seriously maims 

 them for life, if it does not kill them. After 

 pulling at the sting to see that ' it will not 

 come out, he seems to consider the matter a 

 little, and then commences to walk around 

 it, in a circle, just as if it were a screw he 

 was going to turn out of a board. If you 

 will be patient and let him alone, he will get 



