222 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



experience, and a more thorough acquaint- 

 ance with bees, veils of all kinds are almost 

 always laid aside ; still, as beginners invari- 

 ably want them, it may be well to give the 

 matter some consideration. 



There are two great objections to the use 

 of veils ; one is that they necessarily obstruct 

 the vision more or less, and the other is that 

 they obstruct the free circulation of air, 

 which is so desirable in hot weather, and 

 thus tend to make the wearer sweaty, un- 

 comfortable, and perhaps nervous and irri- 

 table. I need hardly say that one who hand- 

 les bees needs to keep "cool," in more senses 

 than one, and he also wants the free and 

 unobstructed use of all his faculties. Many 

 years ago, I advised, instead of the wire cloth 

 bee hat, a veil made of black tarleton, with 

 a rubber cord put in the top, to be slipped 

 over the hat, and the lower ends to be tucked 

 inside the collar, as shown in the cut below. 



AVIRE CLOTH AND LACE BEE VEILS. 



After a while, I found a fine kind of silk 

 lace, called Brussels net, that obstructs the 

 vision much less than the tarleton does, or 

 wire cloth either ; but as this is quite expen- 

 sive, we use it for only that portion of the 

 veil that comes directly in front of the eyes, 

 and these are the veils which we have used 

 for the past half dozen years perhaps. As 

 the tarleton is not a very strong fabric, we 

 have quite recently used in its place, black 

 grenadine. I do not myself use a veil at all, 

 or at least very seldom, prefering the chance 

 of an occasional sting, to having my eyesight 

 obstructed and being hampered with any 

 unnecessary clothing, when working in the 

 hot sun. Within the past year, several at- 

 tempts have been made to improve veils on 

 both the points I have mentioned. The 

 principal point where clear vision is demand- 

 ed is in looking for eggs, in old, dark combs. 

 With a veil, you might decide that your 

 queens had not commenced laying, being 



unable to detect the tiny speck of an egg, at 

 the bottom of the cells, but with the veil re- 

 moved, you would be able to see the eggs at 

 once. A piece of glass might be framed and 

 sewed into the veil just before the eyes, but 

 it would be in danger of being broken. To 

 remedy this difficulty, Mr. A. Nickerson, of 

 Norwalk, Conn., has suggested a thin sheet 

 of mica, such as is used for stove fronts. 

 This gives a very clear vision, when it is 

 perfectly clean, but judging from the way 

 in which most of the ABC class manage, I 

 should expect it very soon to get so soiled, 

 that the wire cloth or lace would be much 

 the clearer medium to see eggs through. 

 The latest idea is a wire cloth with meshes 

 just as large as they possibly can be without 

 admitting a bee, and made of very fine hair 

 wire. It is found by experiment that the 

 wire, lace, or whatever else be used, should 

 be black, rather than any other color. I am 

 at present taking steps to have a wire cloth 

 of this kind made. The difficulty seems to 

 be in having a durable wire cloth, with such 

 fine wire, and so large a mesh. Such wire 

 cloth, besides being cooler than any of the 

 other fabrics used, would be much stronger, 

 and as a veil is in constant danger of being 

 caught and torn on shrubbery, etc., to say 

 nothing of the probability of a rent from the 

 frantic efforts of the young apiarist to get a 

 bee out, which may, by chance, get imprison- 

 ed inside, they really ought to be made of 

 something as nearly like sheet iron, in 

 strength, as possible. It may be well to state 

 that no danger need be apprehended from a 

 bee who gets inside, for all his energies are 

 at once devoted to getting out, instead of to 

 stinging, unless, by some chance, he should 

 get pinched. A piece of wire cloth about 2i 

 feet long, by 9 inches wide, will be about 

 right for most persons ; I would have some 

 soft fabric attached to it at the top to go a- 

 round the hat, and also at the bottom, to 

 tuck inside the collar. Be sure no loose ends 

 of wire are left sticking out to catch and 

 tear the cloth, for the annoyance of such 

 things when one is writhing under the inflic- 

 tion of a sting, does not particularly contrib- 

 ute to the Christian frame of mind, which a 

 bee keeper, above all other persons, should 

 strive to carry constantly with him. 



VENTILATION. I should be temp- 

 ted to pass this subject by as one of little 

 importance comparatively, were it to be con- 

 sidered only in the light in which it has been 

 presented by the vendors of patent hives. 



I do not mean that bees do not need venti- 

 lation, but that they get it, ordinarily, 



