THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



279 



except that they seemed remarka- 

 bly busy at work, — also, tliat I 

 had not opened a hive, hardly dur- 

 ing the past ten days, he seemed 

 puzzled. Said that, as for himself, 

 he had, unfortunately, left some 

 honey in hives, where bees had 

 died last winter ; and that the bees 

 had pulled a piece of lath out of 

 the entrance, and thus gained ac- 

 cess to it, with results that came 

 near being quite serious ; also, that 

 there was, at that moment, a 

 whole swarm of my bees at Mr. 

 Smith's grocery. That he had just 

 assisted the latter, in rescuing all 

 the fi'uit, kept outside the door, 

 from their inroads ; that the bees 

 followed the fruit into the build- 

 ing, where Mr. Smith was doing 

 "what he could to protect himself, 

 by tr3ing to poison tliem ; also, 

 which appeared to me natural 

 enough, talking some pretty hard 

 talk, about so many bees being- 

 kept in the village. Now, two years 

 ago, all this would have alarmed 

 me be3'ond measure ; and was at 

 present, a serious trouble ; but I 

 could not possibly help smiling "in 

 my sleeve," all the time he was 

 telling the stor}', at the thought, 

 that Mr. Smith was, perhaps, at 

 that very moment reading the an- 

 nouncement in the local paper, that 

 I was proposing to increase my 

 apiar}', another season, to the ex- 

 tent which the neighboring '-past- 

 urage " would admit of. 1 was also 

 amused, and, of course, somewhat 

 pleased, on the whole, that the dep- 

 redators were surely mine; though 

 my almost, three neai'est neiglil)ors 

 hardly a block away, are all bee- 

 keepers ; — to say nothing of those 

 of my beekeeping friend, who 

 brought the news. The latter had 

 used rather rough language to the 

 grocer, for destroying my bees. 

 However, I at once assured him, 

 that, though it seemed too bad to 

 poison the poor things, the loss 

 of the bees would not trouble me. 



Next morning, bright and earl3% 

 1 proceeded to interview the gro- 

 cer. Found him as smiling as pos- 

 sible, and proceeded, almost with 

 tears in my eyes, to tell him how 

 much I regretted the trouble caused 

 b}' my bees. Of course 1 knew 

 nothing of the poisoning, — though 

 he was very anxious to learn just 

 how, and how much, I had heard. 

 I told him, what was ver}' true, 

 that Mr. Hills had spoken of his 

 show of fine fruit, and of its being, 

 a credit to the village, — and what 

 a shame it was, the wretched bees, 

 should cause such annoyance. He 

 said that they did cause him some 

 trouble yesterday, — and that lie 

 lost the sale of fruit, for the whole 

 day, people being afraid to pur- 

 chase, and take away the fruit, at 

 the risk of being stung. I, of 

 course, offered to repair damages,, 

 and also to pay for wire screen- 

 ing to make a receptacle outside ; 

 but he would not listen to it, say- 

 ing it was only a few days in the 

 season, that bees were trouble- 

 some ; — that we all had somethino- 

 of the kind to get along with and 

 must do as well as we could. He 

 also, finally said, that the bees got 

 at some poison, placed for Hies, 

 and that quite a little handful had 

 died ; and that a little girl, daugh- 

 ter of a neighboring grocer, on pass- 

 ing the window and seeing them,, 

 had exclaimed, "Oh ! how Mrs. Hills 

 Avould cry, to see her poor bees 

 poisoned." Finallj', I assured him, 

 that I should send an extra case of 

 honey, and he assured me that he 

 should give me credit for it. The 

 honey was sent, and probably 

 credited, though I see no reason 

 why he should not be paid ; and 

 shall attend to it at the time of 

 settlement. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



The queens, received August 25, 

 are laying finely. I triocl intro- 

 ducing one to a nucleus, made after 



