i8S8 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



255 



Homes and Food for the Working Classes," 

 has just l)een written on this subject by 

 Mr. Victor C. Vaughan, Professor in the 

 University of' Michigan, and pid)iislied by 

 Irving A. Watson. Concord, N. II.. of whom 

 it can be obtained .'it tlie very low price of 

 tive cents. Tliis boolv makes the statement, 

 that a family whidi had formerly been 

 healthy became so sickly as to be the remark 

 of the neighborhood, just because large 

 factories were built so neai' as to cut off the 

 sunlight from the house and dooryard. 



STINGS. 



THE VAHIOITS EFFECTS DEPENDENT UPON CIRCUM- 

 STANCES. 



T DESl KE to put on record a few facts on this 

 alf subject, drawn from my own experience while 

 ^i in the bee-business. 1 alwaj'S worlvcd with my 

 "*• bees bare-handed, merely guarding- against 

 bees passing up inside of my sleeve. In the 

 course of a year I received many stings on my 

 hands. When 1 began keeping bees I dreaded a 

 sting very much. It was not only painful, but usu- 

 ally followed bj- swelling which often lasted over 

 'ii hours. After a time I ceased to dread them, and 

 noticed them as little as possible, and they seemed 

 to be less painful, and scarcely ever caused swell- 

 ing. If during the day I received a number of 

 stings I would feel drowsy in the evening, and de- 

 sired to retire early. At least, I imagined that my 

 drowsiness was caused by the stings. I also 

 thought severe stinging caused a burning, itching 

 sensation in my eyelids, and it seemed to me that 

 each year I could notice this soreness in my eyelids 

 increasing. 



Once a bee-sling made me sick and faint. I was 

 stung in the small of my back, the bee stinging 

 through my shirt. It caused me intense pain, and 

 I grew sick and faint, and with difficulty reached 

 the house. The day was sultry, and I was very 

 warm at the time, and therefore I could not say 

 how much of my illness was owing to the sting. 

 After an hour's rest I felt all right. My wife often 

 assisted me in my apiary, and frequently received 

 stings, with no serious inconvenience; but one day, 

 as she was busy about her housework a cross bee 

 darted at her and stung her on the neck. She com- 

 plained of intense pain, and soon became so ill that 

 she had to lie down. Her whole body was some- 

 what atfected, as a rash came out all over her body. 

 Her sickness lasted probably six hours. 



One day I was taking off combs to extract. My 

 little daughter, then about twelve years old, was 

 blowing the smoker for me. She was well protect- 

 ed, but in some way a bee crawled inside her hat 

 and stung her, when she suddenly dropped the 

 smoker and made tracks for the house. About 

 half an ho\ir later my wife called me in to see the ef- 

 fects of the sting. She had been stung on the neck, 

 which was somewhat swollen; but the most swell- 

 ing was about her eyes, which were swollen so 

 much she could scarcely see. She also seemed 

 drowsy, and, after a couple of hours' sleep, seemed 

 as well as usual; but her eyelids were still some- 

 what swollen at bedtime. She has had frequent 

 stings since, but none produced any thing like a 

 similar effect. 



I remember being in the house of a physician one 

 evening when he returned from visiting his pa- 



tients. He said he had been called In to a house 

 in the village to see a boy who had been stung by a 

 bee, and was surprised to tind him quite sick and 

 his body covered with a rash, as though he had 

 scarlet fever. The boy's parents were alarmed, but 

 the physician told them the lad would be all right 

 by morning. My experience has led to the conclu- 

 sion that the effects of bee-stings are not always the 

 same. The anger of the bee, the amount of poison 

 injected, the place stung, and the condition of the 

 system, all have an effect. If a person is stung, 

 and the sting proves troublesome, he need not infer 

 that it will be always so, and thus be deterred from 

 ever looking at a hive of bees. The effect of the 

 next sting received may be quite different. 

 Morea, III., March 14, Wm. W. D. Ralston. 



Friend li., there is one point you do not 

 make quite plain. Are we to understand it 

 was when you first commenced working 

 with bees tliat you had those disagreeable 

 symi)toms, and that the more you were 

 stung the less the stings seemed to affect 

 your system? A great many people are af- 

 fected by a kind of rash such as you de- 

 scribe, breaking out all over the body ; but 

 so far as my personal experience goes, it 

 never results in any thing worse than get- 

 ting a whole neighborhood excited, and re- 

 peating to eveiybody the way in which the 

 patient behaved, and the way the poison 

 acted, etc. 



MTINTERED \VITHOUT LOSS. 



MORE STORES CONSUMED ON SUMMEIl STANDS. 



HAVE been looking over my bees to-day, and 

 find them all alive, with plenty of stores to 

 last them another n)onth. This is the first 

 winter that I have wintered bees without loss; 

 and I can only give credit to the sugar I fed 

 them last fall. It is the first time that I have win- 

 tered on sugar. Part of the colonies were in the 

 cellar and part on summer stands. They wintered 

 equally well, except those on summer stands have 

 consumed about '^ more food than did those in the 

 cellar. 



FOUNDATION DIPPED AN EVEN THICKNESS. 



I agree with friend Elwood, page 160, that founda- 

 tion ought to be dipped to an even thickness. Too 

 many depend on the rollers to thin out the last or 

 thick end. I want my wax dipped so a pile of wa.x 

 sheets will be level from end to end and from si<le 

 to side. 



now TO DIP. 



To do this the wax must be at the right tempera- 

 ture, so as to get what you want at one dip. The 

 board must be put in slick and easy. It must be 

 drawn out slow and steady, no stopping halfway, 

 or the sheets will have a ridge; and if the board is 

 drawn out too fast, the wax runs ami makes the 

 lower edge thick. It is slow work to dip the right 

 kind of sheets for thin foundation; but what is 

 worth doing at all is worth doing well, even though 

 we have only a few colonies of bees. 



A COMPLETE FAILURE LAST YEAR. 



We had a complete failure here last year; but 

 every thing looks encouraging so far, and those 

 that fed their bees last year will be well paid, as 

 honey will bring a good price. 



R. B. Leah V— 62. 63. 



Higginsville, Mo., Mar. 12, 1888. 



