580 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



opinion, is insufficient to find its way into the 

 flower, but lodges pn the leaves of the plant. 



G. W. Hood. 



CAUTION IN REGARD TO OUTDOOR FEEDING. 



In recent editorials on this subject it will 

 be remembered we spoke of the liability of 

 wearing out the old bees, and also of the 

 danger of having a sweetened syrup sour in 

 the combs. With regard to this, Mr. J. E. 

 Hand writes: 



Mr. E. R. Boot:— I note with pleasure that you 

 people at Medina are favorably impressed with the 

 new system of feeding sweetened water to imitate 

 nature's honey-tlow. While a judicious system of 

 open-air feeding is undoubtedly an indispensable 

 adjunct to the qvieen-rearing yard, it is doubtful if 

 it will prove of much benefit to the honey-pro- 

 ducer except as a means of preventing robbing 

 during a dearth of nectar when extracting late in 

 the season, or when practicing any necessary 

 manipulations with bees at a time when robbers 

 would be troublesome. For this purpose there 

 is no doubt that it will pay every bee-keeper 

 to install a system of open-air feeding. On the 

 other hand, it exhausts the vitality of the old bees, 

 causing them to disappear at an alarming rate, 

 and, in spite of the increased brood-rearing, it is a 

 noticeable fact that at this date there are fewer 

 bees in the hives than usual where stimulative 

 feeding was not practiced. It is true there is 

 plenty of capped brood which may more than 

 make up for the loss of the old bees that would, 

 perhaps, have died of old age long before spring. 

 If there is any advantage in having all young bees 

 to go into winter quarters, it is certain that open- 

 air feeding will accomplish the purpose. Care 

 should be exercised not to feed nuclei and weak 

 colonies too rapidly, otherwise it will be likely to 

 sour in the combs. Practically all our nuclei have 

 got their living from the open-air feeders, and have 

 stored a little in advance of present needs, while 

 the strong cell-building colonies have shown a 

 gradual gain, and the honey as a rule seems to be 

 well ripened. I would not advocate open-air feed- 

 ing to furnish winter stores where it is necessary 

 to feed hall and half, sugar and water, as it causes 

 too much excitement among the bees, with the 

 result already mentioned. I shall carefully note 

 the effect of open-air feeding vipon the wintering of 

 bees, and will report the result. 



Birmingham, O. J. E. Hand. 



colonies by the hundreds, and experience 

 by the decade. For that reason every one 

 is welcome to offer an ojiinion providing it 

 is backed by actual observation. 



OUR QUESTION AND ANSWER DEPARTMENT. 



Our readers will notice that we have an 

 extra grist of Heads of Grain, or answers to 

 questions, in this issue. By the way, we 

 are putting more time on Heads of Grain 

 than we ever did before. We believe that, 

 if there is any department in our journal 

 that is important and valuable to beginner 

 and veteran alike, it is our Question and 

 Answer department, or what we call Heads 

 of Grain. While the editor does not arro- 

 gate to himself any superior knowledge on 

 bees he occupies a position for gathering 

 facts that most readers do not. 



In this connection, it should be clearlv 

 understood that the Heads of (it rain depart- 

 ment contains matter for the professional 

 bee-keepers as well as special matter for 

 those just taking up bee-keeping. What 

 does not interest the former he can skip. 



If there is any answer that we give at any 

 time that is not strictly orthodox or correct 

 we shall regard it as a favor if our readers 

 will put us right. It sometimes happens 

 that a five-hive bee-keeper knows more on 

 some particular phase of our wonderful in- 

 dustry on "how doth the busy little bee" 

 than some of the veterans who count their 



ARE BEE STINGS EVER FATAL? 



Occasionally we receive a newspaper 

 clipping from a subscriber telling of some 

 one who died shortly after being stung by a 

 bee. The papers, eager for sensational items, 

 generally put in these accounts in more or 

 less exaggerated form. After investigating 

 two or three cases, and finding that the un- 

 fortunate person either had a very weak 

 heart or else was physicallj?^ unsound in 

 some other way, we have come to the con- 

 clusion that the sting itself is rarely, if ever, 

 fatal— at least, any one in normal health 

 need have very little fear. It is true that 

 some persons are so constituted as to be un- 

 able to stand more than one sting without 

 severe swelling of the throat, so that breath- 

 ing is made difficult. We have advised all 

 such to protect themselves carefully with a 

 good veil and gloves so that it will be im- 

 possible to be stung more than once, and 

 then not severely. As is well known, the 

 effect of the sting depends upon the location 

 of the wound and also upon the length of 

 time the sting is allowed to remain in the 

 fiesh. If not scratched^ out very soon the 

 muscles of the sting itself, by reflex action, 

 keep up a iiumping motion forcing all of the 

 poison in the poison-sac down into the 

 wound. With good protection there is no 

 danger of receiving much more than a mere 

 prick from a sting. Furthermore, as we 

 have explained before, after one has been 

 stung a few times, all swelling, even in these 

 extremely bad instances, practically disap- 

 Ijear, for the system becomes immune to the 

 poison. The sharp pain at the moment the 

 sting is received is, of course, felt by the 

 veteran as well as the novice in the business. 



It is a strange fact, and yet not so strange 

 either, but to the laymen the stings loom up 

 as an almost impassable barrier to all 

 thoughts of keeping bees, while to the pro- 

 fessional bee-keeper they are the least of all 

 his troubles. 



In England, lately, a man died of lockjaw 

 following the sting of a bee. We believe 

 there have been one or two other cases on 

 record that are similar. Our correspondent, 

 Mr. G. W. Bullamore, suggests that since 

 the tetanus bacilli exist in practically every 

 sample of cultivated earth, there is some 

 danger, perhaps, although of course very re- 

 mote, of lockjaw following the practice of 

 ai)plying damp earth or mud to the wound 

 inflicted by the sting of an insect. There is 

 just one remedy any way that is worth fol- 

 lowing, and that is to "grin and bear it." 

 A great many amateurs have remedies that 

 give relief in their own cases, but in ninety- 

 nine times out of a hundred these have no 

 effect on other people. The best way is to 

 forget it as quickly as i)ossible, for the less 

 fuss one makes about a bee-sting, the better 

 off he is. 



