202 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



[September. 



never kick a hive with bees in it. If 

 your wife comes out to see what the 

 trouble is, "sass" her. When the 

 aroused bees begin to chase her back 

 into the house again then laugh dia- 

 bolically. 



By this time you will have become 

 so warm that it will be necessary to 

 remove your bee-veil which is worth- 

 less, anyhow. As you do so a few 

 bees will sting you on the scalp. The 

 pains will be so exquisite that it will 

 set you to howling and dancing. The 

 proper time to do this is when some 

 one is passing or when Mrs. Bishop, 

 your neighbor, is watching you. 



As the bees will continue to sting, 

 it will be well to retreat to the cellar, 

 where you may cuss everything and 

 everybody, commiserate yourself and 

 wonder why it is that the good Lord 

 has made life so hard for you. Do 

 not fail to regret that you ever saw a 

 bee or heard of bee-keeping. 



It must be distinctly remembered 

 that all the above-mentioned cussing is 

 entirely at your option. I do not rec- 

 ommend it but am only describmg 

 the usual method of procedure. If 

 "dog-gone it" and "confound it" are 

 strong enough to relieve your feehngs 

 then these words may be used, al- 

 though they are not entirely ortho- 

 dox Lady bee-keepers may use thern 

 with propriety and I have observed 

 that they frequently aid my wife in 

 her work about the hives, although 

 she is not yet an advanced bee-keeper. 



Now, in a spirit of grim determina- 

 tion, you must put on a double suit of 

 clothes, readjust your veil, get gloves 

 and tie your trousers and sleeves at 

 the extremities. Go back to the hive 

 where you left your smoker, which in 

 some mysterious way has become 

 ignited again and which has set the 

 d'ry grass on fire. You will be ap- 

 prised of this by the alarms sounded 

 by your neighbors. Stamp the fire 

 out and then stamp the smoker, stamp 

 it all you want to, for you can't make 

 it any worse than it is. Now get 

 your Alley queen trap and_ set it in 

 front of the entrance. Take out every 

 frame and brush the bees off, deter- 

 mined to find the queen or die. You 

 may as well die, for you won't find 

 her'. As you are brushing the last 

 frame the weight of bees gathered on 

 the trap will cause it to tumble off, 

 killing a hundred or so, and in the 

 melee, the queen will slip, unohservcd, 

 into the hive again. As it will now 



be sundown, you may as well bathe 

 your swollen body and go to bed, de- 

 termined to find the queen next day, 

 if you have to brimstone the whole 

 colony to do it. 



When morning comes and the bees 

 are flying well, you will be feeling bet- 

 ter. Whistling blithely go to the hive 

 in your shirt-sleeves without veil, 

 smoker or gloves gently lift the cover 

 and slide back the first frame. Take 

 out the second one, giving it a pas- 

 sing glance, and there, radiant, efful- 

 gent, glorious, shimmering, will be 

 your queen, in stately oblivion of you 

 and everything, except her egg-lay- 

 ing. Remove her, close the hive and 

 go away, without receiving a sting. 



You may then sit down and write 

 to the bee-papers, telling how easy 

 and pleasant it is for an orthodox bee- 

 master to find a queen. 



Stent, California. 



Quite a number of authorities claim 

 that the common honey-bee was not 

 imported into Australia till 1862. Of 

 late Dr. V. Buttel has searched for 

 better evidence and he found that 

 according to a magazine, "Zoolog. Gar- 

 ten" bees were imported during the 

 year 1840. According to an exten- 

 sive work on bees the English govern- 

 ment sent the first bees to Australia 

 in 1845 or possibly as early as 1837, and 

 according to an entomological work 

 of William Jardine entitled "Bees, 

 British and Foreign," printed in Lon- 

 don, 1835, the European honey-bee has 

 more than once been brought to Sid- 

 ney but without success, for the bees 

 "left" the hives and went to the woods. 

 One colony was brought to Van Die- 

 mens Land by Dr. T. B. Wilson in 

 1830. This colony came from Lon- 

 don in a wire cloth cage and swarm- 

 ed several times the first year. In the 

 "True Colonist," of February 14, 1845, 

 it is stated that a colony, a descendant 

 of Dr. Wilson's first importation, be- 

 longing to a gentleman near Holart, 

 had cast its i8th swarm. 



According to the above statements 

 it would seem that the brown bee 

 must have been brought to Australia 

 not later than 1830. The Italian bee 

 was introduced by T. W. V/oodbury, 

 Exeter, England, who sent four fall 

 colonies to Australia in 1862 which 

 arrived there safely after a journey 

 of 79 days. (From Central-blatt.) Bum- 

 blebees were brought to Australia in 

 the year 1877. 



