GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



" stung;' an instance of feamful and unusual stinging 



BY OPIE QUEUE 



In my diary for 1913, in the space de- 

 signed i'or Sept. 17, I have written just one 

 word. It is short. To a stranger it might 

 seem meaningless and absurd. Beekeepers, 

 whetlier veteran or novice, might even re- 

 gard it as ridiculous. Nevertheless, the 

 word is there, and it is not only short, but 

 it is pregnant Avith truth, and I assure you 

 that it will never fail to serve its purpose, 

 namely, to recall to my mind, should recall- 

 ing ever be necessary, a memorable occasion 

 of my life. This word, as recorded in my 

 diary, reads: "Stung," — nothing more, 

 nothing- less. 



T fancy there will be scores of beekeepers 

 wlio will smile as they read this, and say: 

 "Here is a novice; here is a fellow who 

 harps on triflas and even records such com- 

 mon, every-day occurrences as bee-stings in 

 his diary." 



And then I hear another beekeeper say : 

 "But he'll get older by and by." And a 

 third adds: "And wiser, too." All of 

 which goes to show that, though I may be 

 young, and a novice, and may get older and 

 wiser, these friends of mine, even if they 

 be veterans at the game, do not yet know 

 what it actually means to be "stung." Un- 

 derstand: I was not stung by a quack 

 doctor; I was not stung by a real-estate 

 agent nor by a gold-brick concern nor by a 

 mining pi-omotor. Furthermore, I was not 

 stung by a wasp i.or a hornet nor by your 

 humble bumblebee. No, I was stung by 

 bees, by. dozens of them, by hundreds, yes, 

 by thousands of them. For all I know I 

 was stung to within an inch of my life. Of 

 one thing I am certainly convinced, and 

 that is that, had I not to some extent been 

 accustomed to bee-stings, my life would 

 have been very nearly if not altogether 

 snuffed out. Indeed, even as it is I am 

 very thankful that I was able, by the help 

 of God, to survive. 



As I said above, it was on the 17th of 

 September. But to understand why the 

 bees acted in this outrageous manner, it 

 will be necessary to go back somewhat and 

 consider the management and condition of 

 the bees during the summer, and for the 

 benefit of those who may be interested I 

 shall therefore do this, even though in so 

 doing I should expose myself as a very poor 

 beekeeper. 



When the white-clover flow came on, I 

 was in possession of two colonies of bees, 

 and shortly afterward I had a swarm, mak- 

 ing three. The flow of nectar during the 

 last season was a revelation to me. The 



sujjers gained in weight by leaps and 

 bounds. When the flow was but half over, 

 I had more than a hundred pounds of 

 honey on each of the old hives. About at 

 this time, the end of June, I planned to 

 leave with my family for the West, there 

 to spend the summer vacation. Quite natu- 

 rally my bees gave me much concern. The 

 honey on the liives was not at all ripe 

 enough to extract. Moreover, the heat dur- 

 ing midday was intense, one day some 

 combs on one hive began to sag and melt. 

 I therefore tilted one end of the top supers 

 on each hive up and placed inch blocks 

 under them for ventilation. That helped, it 

 is true, but what was I to do for the sum- 

 mer ? I did not feel like letting them act 

 like this, and at the same time I was afraid 

 to take them away. There was nobody in my 

 neighborhood who kept bees or to whom I 

 could,, in the few days left, have given in- 

 structions sufficient to enable him to man- 

 age them properly during the summer 

 months. One or two days before leaving I 

 therefore put another empty super on each 

 hive, placing those that were full above. 

 Thus, with the exception of the young- 

 swarm, each hive was five and one-half full 

 stories high, including the hive bodies. I 

 fastened and braced them firmly to the 

 gi-ound, so that there was no danger of top- 

 pling over during- my absence, and as the 

 weather promised to continue hot for some 

 time I left the top supers propped up as 

 indicated above. Then we went west, leav- 

 ing the bees just as above described to 

 their own devices throughout the summer 

 months of July and August. 



When we returned early in September I 

 was delighted to see that everything per- 

 taining to my bees was in first-class shape. 

 The hives, man-high, still stood as I had 

 left them, and they Avere fairly boiling and 

 buzzing with busy liUle workers. But dur- 

 ing- the first few days I was unable to go at 

 I hem. I went near them several times, it 

 is true, but that was all. But even so T 

 noticed something about them that was very 

 peculiar. At all other times docile and 

 manageable, they Avere noAV quite the con- 

 trary. Even Avhile only approaching tliem 

 they Avould buzz around me and fly into my 

 face and sometimes even sting- Avithout the 

 least provocation imaginable. I attributed 

 this to the large openings under the top 

 supers, Avhich, as I have said, T had left 

 during the summer for ventilation. No 

 doubt some bees liad been trying to rob, 

 makins' them vicious. One night I there- 



