1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



411 



Now, I wish to say that the killing of any thing- as 

 speedily as possible, where said killing- is to be per- 

 formed tor some reason, except wantonness, can 

 not be called cruelty; but it is the wanton killing of 

 a thing, or the slow torture of it, which brings the 

 cruelty. If in any of my manipulations I chance to 

 injure a bee, I always take time to see that said bee 

 is killed by mashing her thorax, as that is the seat 

 of life in the bee, and I consider it no sin to so kill a 

 bee, if through the rapid manipulation of hives I 

 chance to pinch one or more so as to cripple them. 

 The point I wish to make is, that it is no more sin to 

 kill one thing than another, and also to show that all 

 the cry made against killing bees in manipulating 

 hives, or by brimstone, is simply because there is a 

 certain value in the worker-bee. To illustrate this, 

 I am going to take some of the writings of " Uncle 

 Amos " and compare them, and leave the reader to 

 see if I am not right in the above, as well as to 

 prove that he is guilty of cruelty to insects. In 

 ABC, page 226, he says he has seen frames set on 

 the ground so as to maim and mash the little work- 

 ers, who then writhe in their death agonies, and 

 then asks, " Why will people be so careless and 

 heedless of the comfort and life of the rest of the 

 animated creation?" Again, on page 378, he says, 

 "A careless person might not be aware that he 

 killed bees at all, and some do not seem to care; 

 but to me, the sight of the quivering form of a 

 crushed and mangled little fellow, when he is inno- 

 cently standing in the threshold of his own door, is 

 enough to spoil the pleasure of bee-keeping." Now 

 we will turn to page 26 of Gleanings for 1880, where 

 he tells us that it is shown pretty conclusively that 

 any one who brimstones bees is liable to prosecu- 

 tion by law for needless cruelty to animals; and 

 after tendering friend King thanks for calling the 

 notice of the bee-keepers to the above fact, he asks, 

 "My friends, shall the little bees whose comfort and 

 safety seem to devolve particularly on us be less 

 protected by the laws of our land than the horses 

 and cattle?" Again, turn to page 331, Gleanings 

 for 1881, and he says, " Our boys often leave queen- 

 cages standing about, containing bees only, after 

 the queen has been used. It is, of course, more 

 trouble to take these dozen or so bees to a hive than 

 to let them remain imprisoned and stai-ve; but, my 

 friends, the thought of these little fellows dying in 

 this way would so haunt me that I could not bo 

 happy anywhere; and, busy as I am, I often take 

 them to a hive and let them out myself, when no- 

 body else will do it." 



It will be noticed, that in all of the above the 

 "little fellows" spoken of are worker-bees, hence of 

 value. 



Now, friends, it is my duty to take you to page 

 737 and 738 of Gleanings for 1883, where you will 

 see that our good old father in bee-keeping, L. L. 

 Langstroth, tells us of his cruelty to the poor and 

 helpless drones; at the end of which. "Uncle 

 Amos," who could not be happy over those few 

 bees left in the queen-cages, and whose pleasure 

 is spoiled by the sight of a mangled bee, tells us 

 how peacefully and happily he sleeps, with a whole 

 hive of drones left out in the cold and damp all 

 night, which causes dreadful cramps to seize their 

 limbs, and ague-chills to creep over their bodies, so 

 that they are "found sprawled out upon the alight- 

 ing-board the next morning." Hear him : " Toward 

 dusk, put on the drone-guard over the entrance; 

 shake off all the bees outside the hive, and every 



drone the hive contains is ready to be killed, or fed to 

 the chickens, as yousaj-, the next morning." Just 

 think of it a moment; these poor, rheumatic, ague- 

 chilled drones, which are nearly starved, with bones 

 all aching by being kept from home and Are, out in 

 the cold all night, are now to go writhing in agonj% all 

 crushed and mangled, down into the crop of the 

 chicken, there to struggle till life becomes e.\tinct! 

 Oh my ! The maltreating of that poor cat was no 

 comparison to it; yet friend Root does not even 

 chide father Langstroth, nor Itimself, for such a rec- 

 ommend. Why? because the drones ai-eof no value! 

 Friend Root, I am almost ashamed of you, because 

 you plead so eloquently for that which is of value, 

 and then let us know that you have no sympathy 

 for that which is of no value, in allowing these poor 

 drones to be thus shamefully and cruelly treated 

 through your sanction. 



I have much more I desire to say; but time and 

 space forbid. I will close by asking if it were not 

 better to control the production of drones to one or 

 two square inches to each colony (except a few 

 choice colonies, which should rear an abundance), 

 rather than recommend drone-traps, as we are now 

 doing, in which to catch the drones where they are 

 at first of necessity tortui'ed, and then afterward 

 killed. I am fully as careful of the life of a drone 

 as I am of a worker; and to this end, as far as may 

 be, cut out the superfluous drone -comb, and fit 

 worker-comb in its place. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., June, 1884. 



Friend D., this is too solemn and sacred a 

 matter for us to get to arguing about. Very 

 likely I have been remiss; and if so, I will 

 try to do better. It seems to me you liave 

 overloolved a chiuse in my article in behalf of 

 poor Icitty, -where I make these remarks : " I 

 know it fs sometimes necessary to have cats 

 killed, or got out of the way, when they be- 

 come so numerous as to be intrusive ; 

 but. dear friends, tills should be done with 

 kindness and love for the poor dumb brutes, 

 and with as little pain as possible, should it 

 not ?'' It is necessary to kill mice, and, of 

 course, it is also necessary to kill drones 

 when they are a useless expense. I am very 

 glad of your suggestion, that we should en- 

 deavor to kill them with as little pain and 

 torture as possible. Some way I have got 

 an idea that bees do not suffer very mucli 

 when they l)ecoine dormant from cold ; for 

 when they revive they seem to rally so quick- 

 ly, and it occurred to me this would be as 

 easy and expeditious a way of killing them 

 as any. I do most earnestly recommend 

 that instead of killing them, we prevent 

 their useless production by the use of sheets 

 of all worker-comb. I am glad to have you 

 gather together, as you have, whatever I 

 have said in behalf of kindness to the bees, 

 and I would not have one word of it left out 

 of the ABC book. When it is neccsftary to 

 kill animals or insects, it is a Christian act 

 to do it, if I am correct. The point I wish 

 to draw out t)articidarly is, that it is very 

 wicked to kill or torture animals for sport ; 

 and friend Langstroth and I certainly had 

 no thought of torturing the drones just for 

 the fun of the thing. I do not believe my 

 feelings were altogether selfish when I spoke 

 of ])eing kind to the worker bees, and then 

 said what I did about the drones. 1 think I 

 should be as careful about mashing drones 



