1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



71 



little tidal wavelets. Soon our eyes felt fiery 

 ?ind protuberant, and our head was all aglow 

 with fever. Mouth, throat and stomach success- 

 ively yielded to the subtle virus, until we had 

 to drink cold water to keep from fainting and 

 vomiting. The pain too was excruciating. 

 Before long, we broke out from head to foot in 

 red blotches, and the surface of the skin looked 

 like a case of scarlet fever at its worst stage. 

 There was a strange tingling sensation in the 

 ends of the fingers and toes, as if the virus 

 coursed through the system and oozed out at the 

 extremities. For about an hour our sufferings 

 were intense. Then the pain, swelling and 

 fever gradually subsided, but we were ill all 

 day, and had to lie down about three hours, and 

 might as well been on our back the whole time, 

 for we were fit for nothing when up and around. 

 After a good night's sleep, there was a general 

 sense of weakness and soreness, and a very stiflf 

 upper lip. This last we felt the need of in 

 order to persevere in bee-keeping, after the ex- 

 perience of the day before. 



Now we want the opinion of older and longer 

 headed apiarians than ourselves, in relation to 

 the circumstance above narrated, and that they 

 may be in position to give it understandingly, 

 we have two or three additional statements to 

 make. 



1. We have not exaggerated the case in the 

 least. 



3. So far as we can judge, we were not only 

 in good health, but if any thing rather better 

 than usual. 



3. It was a delightfully clear and pleasant 

 summer morning. 



Is it a mistake to suppose that a bee-sting is 

 'nothing when you are used to it "? Are there 

 times when the poison of the bee is dangerously 

 virulent? Must bee-keepers pursue their voca- 

 tion with the knowledge that they are at any 

 time liable to an experience like the foregoing ? 

 How many such stiugs would it take to kill a 

 man ? Are there parts of the human body where 

 a bee-sting is in danger of proving fatal ? 



Our continuance in the bee business depends to 

 some extent on the answers to these questions. 

 Meantime, we shall wear a veil when we visit 

 our apiary, " you bet." 



Hives are to be made of any size between a 

 bushel and a half bushel, saith Mr. Butler. 



Bee Houses. 



BY THE EDITOB. 



Among the most unsightly objects that afflict 

 the eye as one travels here and there through- 

 out the country, are the structures put up to 

 shelter bee-hives from sun and storm. They are 

 generally mere sheds of the most rickety and 

 tumble-down description. Put up in a hurry — 

 not intended to remain long — soon getting out 

 of shape and out of repair, they are as we have 

 said, among the worst of eye sores. Generally 

 speaking, too, they are very unhandy. Often 

 to save trouble and boards they are put up in 

 the form of a lean-to against one side of the 

 dwelling-house. They are built low, just suffi- 

 cing to cover the hives. There is no getting be- 

 hind the hives for the purpose of examination 

 or management; and so everything must be 

 done in front, just in the thick of the thorough- 

 fare where the bees are passing and re-passing 

 on their trips for honey and pollen. There is 

 no getting under the roof to do anything, and 

 so whatever is done must be got along with in 

 a fumbling, awkward sort of way, where the 

 hives stand, or they must be removed to a dis- 

 tance for more convenient handling. Bee-keep- 

 ers who have these low-roofed, inconvenient, 

 unsightly looking bee-houses, are generally of 

 the class who leave the bees very much to their 

 own devices. They hive the bees, put on honey- 

 boxes in white clover time, take the boxes off 

 in the fall, and perhaps pack some straw around 

 the hives when winter comes on. These are 

 about all the operations in practical apiculture 

 with which they trouble themselves. Artificial 

 swarming, regulating stocks, rearing queens, ex- 

 tracting honey, feeding for increase, and many 

 other useful manipulations, known to intel- 

 ligent and skillful bee-keepers, are wholly out 

 of their line. As they have no occasion to med- 

 dle much with their bee-hives, it does not mat- 

 ter a great deal if they are awkwardly placed 

 and inconveniently situated. 



Now and then we find some enthusiastic am- 

 ateur bee-keeper, who has a nice home in the 

 suburbs of a town or city, going to the very op- 

 posite extreme and building a very tasteful and 

 elaborate affair— a sort of palatial mansion for 

 the honey gatherers. The English bee-books 

 contain many pretty and even elegant designs 

 for bee-houses, and some of the best among 

 them have been reproduced west of the At- 

 lantic. 



Many who " have a notion of bee-keeping," 

 as the common phrase is, imagine that a bee- 

 house is the first thing to be thought of; and 

 we have occasionally met with people quite re- 

 solved to try bee-keeping but they have no 

 place for their hives to stand, and they cannot 

 spare time to build one. We are often asked by 

 those who think of embarking in apiculture, 

 "What is the best style of bee-house to put 

 up ?" 



