488 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



interested in the bees, so he donned over- 

 alls and jumper of the same blue material 

 as Pat's overalls, but brand-new. Also he 

 had on a good wire bee-veil, and tucked his 

 hands deep into his pockets. Pat and I were 

 busy when the small boy sailed in joyously, 

 telling of his outfit. Vei'y shortly there 

 was a wail as of fear, and, turning quickly, 

 a sight met my eyes that frightened me,, 

 seasoned veteran that I am. Those blue 

 garments Avere almost hidden under a seeth- 

 ing, hissing mass of stinging bees. Liter- 

 ally thousands of them fastened by their 

 stings and thousands more were coming 

 from everywhere. Italians, hybrids, blacks, 

 all were at it. I grabbed the boy in my 

 arms and fled. I took him indoors and 

 killed every single bee before I dared re- 

 move his veil or garments. 



Since then I have found that bees always 

 assail that kind of cloth when it is new. 

 Probably the odor of the dye is the cause, 

 for it has a strong and peculiar odor. 



One old man who is very fond of bees is 

 also fond of old-fashioned red handker- 

 chiefs — " bandanas." He used to wear one 

 around his neck, but the bees just loved to 

 pepper it, and now he doesn't wear it so 

 any more. The bees sometimes missed their 

 aim, and he " got it in the neck," you know. 



Wliite gloves, particularly after once or 

 twice wearing, are used by the bees for pin- 

 cushions. Unfortunately, the stuffing in 

 these pin-cushions is alive, and wiggles as 

 the pins come through, and it bends the 

 pins. 



Black bees for a few hundreds or thou- 

 sands of years have managed to survive 

 without stinging each other to death de- 

 spite their color. When a few Italian queens 

 are put in an apiary of blacks or Carnio- 

 lans or Banats, we do not find the Italians 

 stinging all the black-colored bees to death. 

 On the contrary, if we do not meddle, it is 

 but a few years before the Italian blood 

 has vanished. You see the bees love black. 



A small apiary is located in the middle of 

 a large apple orchard, Avhich is kept tilled 

 by a hundred or more hogs big and little. 

 The apiary is surrounded by a wire hog- 

 fence which, while it keeps the hogs from 

 getting within two feet of any of the hives, 

 does not keep the be3S from getting out. 

 Most of the hogs are Avhite, and perhaps 

 half a dozen black or spotted. The bees 

 never molest any of the hogs, either black 

 or white, no matter how crcs5 the b?cs are 

 with the beekeeper. 



Another apiary is located beside a cow- 

 pasture by the corner near the barway, and 

 there, of course, the cattle congregate. Rare- 

 ly does a bee bother a cow, and the black 

 Holsteins are quite as safe as tl;e red or 



red-and-white cows. (Those bees like that 

 shade of red.) But a pair of gi'ay mules 

 always make it a point to pass the apiary 

 on the double quick. 



In an ajiiary of about one hundred and 

 fifty colonies in the State of New York 

 there roams a cow— not that the beekeeper 

 likes the cow or dotes on aroma, but the 

 only place for his bees was the cow-pasture. 

 The cow is a Jersey with black muzzle and 

 black brush to her tail. It is a pet coav, a 

 dear sweet thing to the family, but a con- 

 founded nuisance to the beekeeper, for she 

 is forever nosing around when he is at work 

 with the bees. The bees apparently do not 

 know the cow exists. They will sting the 

 beekeeper, but not the cow, not even her 

 waving black brush. I know, because 1 

 watched. You see, the bees like black. 



An apiary in North Carolina is owned 

 and operated by a black man, not one of 

 the chocolate-brown blacks, but a real black 

 black. Did his bees constantly assail him? 

 Not so I could see it. On the contrary, I 

 got the stings. If bees emerging from a 

 dark hive see a black object more readily 

 than a white one, they should have attacked 

 him rather than me, confound them! 



It is a question Avhether the sudden 

 change from dark to light or vice versa 

 affects bees' vision at all as it does ours. 

 Every observation suggests quite the con- 

 trary. Flashing light attracts their atten- 

 tion. The shiny-black hatpin head, the sud- 

 den removal of shutters from a glass hive, 

 etc., are examples; but apparently it does 

 not affect their vision. 



In one of my bee studies I experimented 

 with a house of white cloth. In dimension 

 it was nine feet cube. It was all white. 

 Even the floor was covered with Avhite cloth. 

 The hives were white, and I donned a white 

 duck suit and white duck hat when at work 

 in there. Most of the time the hives used 

 were of the baby-nucleus type, about eight 

 inches cube with a half-inch hole as an en- 

 trance. 



Were the bees confused when they emerg- 

 ed from the dark interior of the hives into 

 the brilliant white room? So far as could 

 be seen, no. Following are a few of the 

 interesting things observed : 



The bees — workers and drones — would 

 come out of the hives, circle once or twice 

 without touching the cloth walls, and then 

 shoot across the room bang into the north 

 wall, and always above a certain level. I 

 was puzzled until I took a position so that 

 my eyes were on a level with the position 

 fromwliich the bees started, then I saw dis- 

 tinctly the line over which they were flying 

 or attempting to fly. That line was the 

 hazy and irregiilar horizon formed by trees 



