GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



parcel-post mail privilege. Beekeepers 

 should appreciate it, since we were so long 

 in getting it. 



Owensmouth, Cal. 



IS IMMUNITY TO POISON FROM BliE STINGS 

 INHERITED? 



BY W. A. H. GILSTRAP 



Xeitlier Mrs. Gilstrap's parents nor mine 

 ever worked much with bees. She has work- 

 ed with them a good share of the time for 

 20 years, while 1 have worked witli them for 

 23 years, which means we were both inocu- 

 lated with the poison of bee-stings cjuite a 

 while before we were married, which w'as 17 

 years ago. Most of our early work was 

 with the ordinary California mongrel bee 

 called hybrids. They can sting. In her 

 early experience Mrs. Gilstrap was stung 

 half a dozen times one day, which caused 

 her to " break out " as if she had hives, and 

 she was cjuite sick. In two days she was 

 able to be up and tackle bees again. 



Now, you might hunt a while before you 

 would find a woman who likes to work with 

 bees as well as Mrs. Gilstrap, or one who 

 can stand stings as well. 



In my early experience with bees the 

 sting-s were so painful and left so much 

 soreness that I seriously contemplated ciuit- 

 ting; but the fascinating nature of the busi- 

 ness perhaps had more to do in keeping me 

 with bees than financial considerations did, 

 till I became fairly immune to the poison. 



A bee-sting has never been serions willi 

 any of our eight children. The most re- 

 markable one of the children in this line is 

 our youngest boy, Percy, who got over a 

 hundred stings above his shirt collar at one 

 dose before he w^as three years old without 

 any very serious results. Perhaps an ac- 

 count of that affair would be of interest to 

 Gleanings readei^s. 



The apiary was south of the house, per- 

 haps 40 to 70 yards, with bamboo on the 

 west and north sides. The south jDart of 

 the apiary Avas occupied by scrub bees which 

 I had bouglit and brought home, killed the 

 queens, and replaced with ripe cells of good 

 Italian stock. From the house I passed 

 along west of the bamboo and entered the 

 apiary at the southwest corner, passing out 

 of the apiary at the northeast corner, in the 

 vain search for a possible swarm. I turned 

 off the road to care for a horse before re- 

 turning to the house. At the southwest 

 corner of the yard one of those black (or 

 nearly black) bees stung me on my head. 



As Percy afterward told us, he followed 

 me through the apiary by sight and could 

 not have been far from me. He passed me 



while I was caring for the horse ; but I did 

 i.o; see hiiu nor liear him. His mother later 

 i.otieed that he seemed fretful, and told him 

 to go to bed, which he did, and then he 

 called for a drink. Before the water could 

 be brought from a pump in the yard, he got 

 a cup to get a drink, then said, "Mama, bees 

 hurt me." 



" Where r' 



" On my head." 



She called me at once, and we commenced 

 scraping the stings from his neck, face, and 

 head, where thej^ were closely and rather 

 evenly stuck. His hair was quite short. 

 After removing 35 stings with a dull knife 

 it was clear that I Iiad not removed a third 

 of them while Mrs. Gilstrap was busy on 

 tlie other side. He cried a little then, and 

 twitched, Avhich made us fear spasms. We 

 jiut strong soda water on him, gave a little 

 diluted whisky, and phoned from a near 

 neighbor's to a doctor less than two miles 

 away, and took some aimnonia back, whicli 

 Avas applied where it would do good, but 

 could not applj^ it in the nose and on the 

 eyes where the stings were as thickly placed 

 as anywhere. 



The doctor said we had done about all he 

 could have done. While he is opposed to 

 intoxicating beverages as much as we are 

 or can be, he said the whisky would tend to 

 prevent spasms; but if spasms were once 

 comm.enced, Avhisky would make them Avorse. 

 riie face Avas someAvhat swollen for a day or 

 tAvo, and for several days there Avere dark 

 spots', much like those left from measles. 

 He lost a few hours' play from the encoun- 

 ter. 



About tAvo weeks later several of the 

 children Avere with me Avith hands, faces, 

 and feet bare, in the Italian part of the 

 yard. Percy got a sting on the foot, prob- 

 ably from stepping on a bee, Avhen he said, 

 " You old bad bee ! " then complacently 

 laid down and went to sleep near the hive. 



Modesto, Cal. 



GIVING BEES A FLIGHT IN MID-WINTER 



Providing a Cage in a Warm Room for Emergency 



BY DANA F. DOAV 



I was much interested in Mr. Whitten's 

 article, p. 182, March 15, and your editorial 

 comment on it, p. 170. I have done some 

 Avinter manipulation of colonies, not for the 

 purjiose of breeding them up, but to give 

 needed flights and sui:»ply sealed stores. 



Winter before last, very cold Aveather set 

 in the first of December, Avith the tempera- 

 ture frequently at or below zero. About 

 the middle of January there Avere indica- 



