1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



345 



used to find quite an important advantage in 

 Northern Iowa, in the spring. I can get into 

 the brood-nest for any manipulation easier 

 and quicker; I simply have to remove cover, 

 insert knife between any combs in the hive I 

 wish to examine, push a little sidewise, and 

 the frame I wish is read}' to be handled; and 

 in closing up, a single push shoves all the 

 frames back into place. I use self-spacing 

 frames. I never have to take out comb cov- 

 ered wnth bees, and set outside of hive to give 

 room for work. I never have any upper story 

 to lift on and off. This, to a person of my 

 health and strength, is a very important ad- 

 vantage. I can keep a closer supervision over 

 the condition of my bees, as, every time I do 

 any manipulating, I am much more apt to no- 

 tice if any thing is wrong, or beginning to get 

 ■wrong, than if I go into only an upper story. 



I do not use queen-excluding zinc. If one's 

 locality requires the use of zinc, a sheet can 

 be fitted in on each side of the brood-nest, but 

 not so easily or cheaply as in double hives. 

 In this section I don't wan't to U5e zinc in any 

 hive. In Iowa the use of first-class Italian 

 bees suited me better than zinc, as their dis- 

 position was to breed largely early in the sea- 

 son during a light flow of honey, but to drop 

 raising brood largely, and fill every thing full 

 of honey during a heavy flow. If the honey- 

 flows are the same in Canada as they were in 

 Iowa, short and heavy, then success with the 

 single-s'ory hive requires the use of the best 

 stock of Italian bees. 



I have answered Mr. Heise's questions 

 briefly; but if he or any one else should de- 

 cide on testing the use of these hives, I would 

 suggest that he will find the subject gone into 

 much more fully in an article, or, rather, ar- 

 ticles, published in Gleanings some 12 or 15 

 years ago, under the head of " How to Use 

 Single-storv Hives." O. O. Poppleton. 



Stuart, Fla. 



HOT-WATER VS. COLD-WATER TREATMENT OF 

 BEE-STINGS. 



Cold-water Packs Dangerous, and Why. 



BY CHALON FOWLS. 



On page 68, American Bee Journal, Dr. 

 Gallup advises us to treat bad cases of bee- 

 stings with a cold wet-sheet pack, and also 

 same treatment for horses. As I do not write 

 for that journal, I wrote nothing in remon- 

 strance, and I fully expected the subject 

 would be discussed by some of the able writers 

 in that journal. But it has not been; and as 

 the eificacy of this treatment has not been 

 disputed, I suppose it's no wonder that Ram- 

 bler hails with delight any remedy that dis- 

 penses with whisky, which, by the way, I hate 

 quite as cordially as he does; and you too, Mr. 

 Editor, throw up your hat in a way that would 

 imply that you indorse that treatment. Hold 

 on! have you ever seen it tried in a very bad 

 case ? I notice in your A B C of Bee Culture 

 one of the authors (presumably A. I. R. ) says 

 that plunging the hand in cold water made it 

 ache worse; but he thought it was because he 



allowed his mind to dwell upon it. No, it 

 was the cold application, and nothing else. 



Before any one uses this treatment for a 

 dangerous case I would suggest that it be tried 

 on less dangerous cases, and see if it allays 

 the pain any more than its natural subsidence. 

 For my part, if it were a dangerous case in my 

 family I would defend them — yes, risk my 

 life, if necessary — from such treatment, for I 

 verily believe that such treatment might cause 

 death to the person so treated. 



Well, if a cold-water pack is condemned, 

 you will ask, " What shall we do?" Why, 

 just heat the water. It ought not to be very 

 hard to convince either of the Roots that, 

 while cold water might be injurious, hot water- 

 might cause most beneficent results. In order 

 to render a reason for the faith that is in me 

 I will give some experiences that I have 

 had the past season that brought me to my 

 present way of thinking. 



One day last spring I went and opened a 

 queenless swarm of hybrids, without smoke or 

 veil. On the instant one of the vicious insects 

 made a " bee-line " for my eye, and stung the 

 naked eyeball quicker than a vdnk. To say 

 the pain was intense is but putting it mildly. 

 In fact, it was the worst case that I had had 

 in twenty years. Luckily it was at the home 

 apiary. As I had used cloths wrung out of 

 hot water for neuralgic pains in the same 

 organ, I thought of that at once. I could not 

 see out of either eye, but managed to grope 

 my waj' to the house, at the same time calling 

 for help. As soon as the hot water could be 

 gotten for me I applied the cloths, with the 

 result that it very much alleviated the pain, 

 and just in proportion to the heat of the 

 cloths too. 



Later in the season I had occasion to use 

 the same remedy again. Early one morning, 

 hearing a racket I jumped up and ran out 

 barefooted and bareheaded, and found my 

 horse had got a gate open and had got out 

 through the fence, and was caught by her 

 tether rope in some bushes where two late 

 swarms of bees had been hived. She had 

 entirely demolished one hive, reducing it to 

 kindling wood, and had just kicked over the 

 other one when I heard the racket. Of course, 

 the air was filled with infuriated bees, and the 

 mare was performing the circus act. I tried 

 to get up and cut the rope, but could not get 

 near enough to the frantic beast without great 

 danger of being struck down. I then beat a 

 retreat to the house, meanwhile smashing oflF 

 handfuls of bees that were stinging my face, 

 neck, and scalp, or any where they could get a 

 chance ; but no sooner had I reached the 

 house than I reflected that I had left the 

 faithful old mare to be stung to death, and I 

 rushed back to the fray and succeeded in 

 loosing her tether at the other end. 



By this time I had an overdose of rheuma- 

 tism medicine, or enough to prevent rheuma- 

 tism the rest of my life. I hustled to get 

 some hot water, and applied the hot cloths as 

 before, with the result that, in twenty minutes 

 or so, the paid was reduced so I could attend 

 to the horse. I found her eyes swelled shut, 

 and she was rearing and plunging, and throw- 



