1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



685 



A TALE OF THE BEES, OF THE BOY, OF THE 



DOG, OF THF MAN, AND OF THE HORSE; 



HOW TO TKKAT HOKSKS FOR BFK- 



STINGS. 



I WOULD say for the benefit of our read- 

 ers, that, owing- to the heavy traffic on the 

 railroad close to our factor}', acccmpanied 

 with smoke and noise, Mrs. Koot, myself, 

 and Master Leland, our eleven-year-old 

 boy, moved out about two miles and a half 

 from town on to a farm owned by an uncle 

 known familiarly in yecirs g^one by Jis 

 "Neighbor H.," and who during- these 

 years has reared for us hundretis of queens. 

 The house is one of the old-fashioned kind, 

 built 52 years ago, and which had been 

 abandoned for some time. But it suited 

 Mrs. Root, who said that any place remote 

 from the smoke of our factory and the loco- 

 motives, and fiom the shriek of whistles iind 

 the clang of bells, would be more tolerable 

 and "livable" than our modern dvvelling 

 near by the aforesaid nerve destro3-er, and 

 for the summer, at least so far, we have 

 been away from the maelstrom of busy life. 

 I have been going- to and fro on the bicycle 

 to the factory each day, and driving- during- 

 bad weather. 



Near the old house referred to we located 

 an apiary of something- over a hundred col- 

 onies; and during- the spare evening hours 

 I have been working- out among- the bees. 



\^'ell, Neighbor H. had been running- the 

 farm, driving out from town everj^ day. On 

 this particular day of which I speak he 

 was cutting timothy, and the mower and 

 reaper were going- up and dwwn the field. 

 He left his horse browsing:, hitched to the 

 buggy in the field loose, while he went to 

 the further end of the field to see to the 

 men. In the mean time the horse had got 

 over into the uncut hay, and was having- a 

 "regular feast." Leland, seeing- this, con- 

 cluded that Uncle Hen would not like it, 

 and therefore, with the best of intentions, 

 proceeded to back old Brownie (that is the 

 horse's name) out of the timothy. But 

 Brownie was obstrepert.us, and paid but 

 little heed to the boyish voice; whereupon 

 the boy grabbed the whip, and then the old 

 horse concluded to move, and that on a dou- 

 ble-quick. She started in a bee-line for the 

 bee-yard, without any fence around it, the 

 bo3' after her on foot. Very fortunately for 

 the boy a stray bee stung- him, and started 

 him off in another direction. Mr. Harring- 

 ton saw what was coming, aad made rap- 

 idly for the horse. In she went among the 

 bees under the low-spreading- apple-trees, 

 while the boy was making for parts un- 

 known. Pretty soon the horse began to 

 kick, and then a regular stampede ensued. 

 The more the bees stung her, the madder 

 she became. She kicked two hives over, 

 and, as if out of revenge, she would walk 

 1 ight up to a hive in front of her, and stamp 

 one of her front hoofs right throug-h it. She 

 actually ran one foot right through one su- 

 per of comb hone}', down into the brood- 

 nest, and — such a racket! Mr. Harrington 

 arrived on the scene just in time to find the 



horse covered with bees and kicking every 

 thing in sight into smithereens. He man- 

 aged to get her free, and started her for the 

 open barn. He himself was literally cov- 

 ered with stings. He raked the bees out of 

 his hair by the handfuls; and when he 

 emerged from the yard there was scarcely 

 a spot on his face or body that you could 

 place a finger on without putting it on a 

 sting; and the "old mare"— well, she shar- 

 ed about the same fate. 



About this stage of the proceedings a 

 family dog-, very much prized by the chil- 

 dren and by all the members of the family 

 in particular, hearing the horse kick, and 

 seeing- the unusual fracas among the bees, 

 rushed out into the yard and barked at the 

 kicking horse, thinking that the thing for 

 her to do was to to get out from among the 

 bees. But, poor dog! his intentions were 

 good, the same as was the boy's. The bees 

 rushed after him, and the vvay he started 

 for the timothy! Nothing was heard of him 

 till the man with the mower heard the yelp 

 of a dog, and it came from poor "Trixie," 

 who had hidden to get away from the bees; 

 and when the mower came up he was struck 

 by the knife in one of his hind legs, giving 

 it a bad wound. The high keynote of the 

 mad bees, the kicking of the horse, the cry- 

 ing of the boy, all of these and more made 

 things lively for a while. Mrs. Root was 

 on the point of getting on her wheel, to go 

 to town and get me to come home, and thus 

 help out "poor Uncle Hen." She thought 

 of sending the boy on his bike; but for a 

 time at least she knew it would be almost 

 fatal for either to leave the house, as the 

 bees had taken possession of every thing 

 within several rods of the premises. 



Now, Neighbor H., or "Uncle Hen," is 

 an expert horseman as well as bee-keeper; 

 and if there was any man in all the United 

 States who was capable of righting the sit- 

 uation of a horse so badly stung it would 

 die in a few minutes, and pulling together 

 five powerful colonies that had been kicked 

 all into smithereens, it was Uncle Hen. 

 Without a veil or smoker, and notwithstand- 

 ing the hundreds of stings that were being 

 stuck into Jiim, he righted all the hives, put 

 the supers and covers on, and then made a 

 rush for the barn, covered with mad sting- 

 ing bees. He clawed them out of his hair, 

 and smashed them while they were cling- 

 ing to his clothing, which they stung- clear 

 through, they were so mad. He called for 

 a pound of salt, and in the mean time pro- 

 ceeded to rake the bees oif the horse. He 

 wrapped the salt in a pajier, and pushed 

 paper and all down the horse's throat. She 

 was beginning to swell, and it was evident 

 she would die in a few minutes unless the 

 salt would act, and something i/id act. 

 Very so n the swelling began to ease up; 

 the horse seemed easier, and in the course 

 of an hour, when g-iven g-rain, she ate as if 

 nothing- had happened; and in two or three 

 hours mure she was driven home by Mr. 

 Harrington, two miles and a half, in the 

 very buggy in which she had been hitched, 



