506 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



THE BEEKEEPER WHO IS NEVER STUNG 



BY THE AMATEUR 



He tliat keepeth bees among you, and saith he never gets stung, is a liar and the truth is in liim not. 



One day I questioned a wise man. 



The beauty of using quotations from the 

 Bible is that you can take anywhere from 

 one word up and prove anything you wish 

 to prove. The text here is partly from the 

 Scriptures, especially the style, but mostly 

 from somewhere else. 



Being very susceptible for a time to all 

 new ideas and innovations, I listened to the 

 wise ones telling how they had handled bees 

 for years and had never been stung. Of 



course I tried 

 to solve the 

 mystery, ahd 

 pursued it as 

 far as I could 

 without put- 

 ting up any 

 good money 

 for the "se- 

 cret." 



I now re- 

 member that 

 none of those 

 posse ssing 

 the remark-j 

 able knowl- 

 edge were among the successful beekeepers 

 of the neighborhood. One day I questioned 

 a wi.se man for two or three hours till he 

 offered to sell me the secret for, I think, 

 $3.49. I concluded he was still about a 

 dollar too high, and that I'd better go home 

 and look it up in the A B C and X Y Z. 

 The nearest it came to what I wanted was 

 that I should procure a veil, smoker, gloves, 

 etc. But the wise man didn't use " sich 

 truck." It wasn't necessary. Well, I gave 

 up ever becoming possessor of the secret of 

 knowing how to handle bees at all times 

 under all circumstances without getting 

 stung. But Fortune had ordained other- 

 wise; for when my despair was the deepest 



the setting 

 was being ar- 

 ranged for 

 my entire en- 

 lightenmen t , 

 and I didn't 

 need to give 

 up the $3.49 

 either. It all 

 happened this 

 way : 



One hot day 

 in June when 

 the honey- 



'Howdy, kid? Be ye the Amateur .^^ Y.^^ ^°' 

 Beekeeper?" lUg OIT 1 was 



grafting some queen-cells. I was busy at 

 my work, and didn't know any one was 

 within half a mile of me, when I heard a 

 greeting from some one close behind me. 



"Howdy, kid? Be ye the Amateur bee- 

 keeper?" 



I looked up and saw a stranger. A 

 description may as well be given here as 

 any^vhere. But the reader must bear in 

 mind it was my first meeting with the 

 stranger, and up to this time my last. He 

 was a man about 45 years old, 6 feet 2 

 inches tall ; and if he had been a beef steer 

 I'd have said he was rather raw-boned; but 

 as he was a man I might say his contour 

 was irregular, with prominent facial fea- 

 tures. He was dressed in a black suit made 

 for his youngest brother. The pants, I well 

 remember, fitted him snugly, and failed to 

 connect with his shoe tops by two inches. 

 This description may be wrong in parts, but 

 I'll swear to that part applying to the legs, 

 for I saw more of them than any other part. 



I said, " Glad to see you. Yes, that's my 

 name ; but let me get you a veil. The bees 

 are rather cross to-day." 



He looked at me severely. "Now, look-a- 

 here. I never take stock in sich truck — 

 wouldn't wear it. Bees never sting me ! " 



" But," I 

 persisted, " I dn 

 have a veil in 

 the honey- 

 house, and 

 my bees are 

 quite cross 

 to-day." 



"Now, son, 

 I handled 

 bees when 

 you wuzn't 

 knee-high to 

 a grasshop- 

 per, and I never wuz stung but twice in my 

 life — onc't when I set down on a bee." 



I don't remember now when the other 

 time was, but presume it was when a bee 

 sat down on him. 



It might be well to state right here that 

 this was the fiist time in my life I had ever 

 seen one of those immune fellows among the 

 bees, and I thought I might get a pointer or 

 two from him while he was undergoing the 

 acid test. 



" I came up to talk to you about taking 

 an agency on a gum I invented back in 

 Missouri, and if you are the feller I take 

 yc to be I'll give ye tlie exclusive agency of 



visitor grew eloquent. 



