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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino, New York. 



AVOIDING BEING STUNG. 



" Can you tell us how to avoid 

 being stung? I do not mind an 

 occasional sting, but my bees seem 

 persistent in stinging me, so that 

 some days I get from 20 to 50 or 

 more stings." 

 Quite a little depends upon the individual 

 ill regard to this. If a man works at the 

 bees with quick or jerky motions, when lift- 

 ing hives, frames, or sections, he is apt to 

 jar the bees more or less, and even kill 

 many of them. A man having 20 colonies 

 desired to come and work with me for a 

 day or two to learn something more about 

 the proper way of handling bees; so I told 

 him to open a colony of my most peaceable 

 bees just as he did his own, and if he lacked 

 in any part I would show him a better way. 

 The first thing he did was to throw (or, 

 rather, drop) the shade-board on the ground 

 in such a way that it fell over against the 

 body of the hive with a heavy jar. I called 

 a halt, telling him that in all the manipula- 

 tions about a colony of bees everything 

 must be done with a view to making as little 

 disturbance as possible. He then commenc- 

 ed to pry the frames apart, and did it about 

 as a man would pry up sticks of timber 

 were they frozen down. I was about to call 

 a halt again when he grabbed one of the 

 loosened frames and brought it out with a 

 trembling, jerking motion, causing the end- 

 bars to strike the hive, and the one next to 

 it, so that from 50 to 100 bees were crippled 

 for life. In a short time he was getting out 

 of the beeyard with more stings than I 

 would get in two months. 



A man must learn that much depends 

 upon the flow of nectar and the weather. A 

 cloudy or cool rainy day, when all the bees 

 are kept at home, is the worst time to open 

 hives unless it is a day when the bees have 

 been robbing, or a cool day following a 

 sudden stoppage of the nectar flow. If it is 

 really necessary to ' handle bees at such 

 times, the thoughtful apiarist will first make 

 sure that his smoker is in good order, and 

 is ready to give off a good volume of smoke. 

 He will blow in a little of it at the entrance, 

 and then pry up the cover a little very 

 gently. As he does so he will send a stream 

 of smoke into the crack made by the screw- 

 driver or other tool he uses. This drives 

 down the guards, and then the crack is 

 made a little wider, and more smoke is driv- 

 en in, when the cover is removed. If the 

 bees appear nervous, and stick their heads 



up all along the sjiaces between the top- 

 bars of the frames, standing high on their 

 legs, and follow every motion with a turn 

 of their heads, they should be given a few 

 more light whiffs of smoke until they are 

 subdued and show it by keeping mostly 

 down below the top-bars among the combs. 

 Using the hive-tool, the frames should be 

 loosened very gently, the smoker being held 

 in the other hand. If the bees stick their 

 heads up at any time ready to show fight, 

 they must be driven back again, and then 

 the first frame very gently removed, care 

 being taken that no bees are rolled over 

 and bruised by the frame coming in contact 

 with any part of the hive or other combs 

 with force enough to cripple any of them. 

 After the first frame is out, when working 

 in this way the bees rarely show much fight; 

 but if they do, a few whiffs should be given 

 as they become restless. 



In warm weather, with a nectar flow, I 

 rarely blow smoke in at the entrance. Just 

 a little in the crack when removing the cover, 

 and a little smoke on its arrival, is all that 

 is necessary with nine out of ten colonies, if 

 care is used. I do not think that there is 

 a colony in my yard that I could not go out 

 and manipulate without either smoke or 

 veil, and receive no stings, yet I would be 

 obliged to work very slowly and carefully. 

 It often happens that I wish to do just a 

 little work with the bees — see if a queen has 

 been released or if she has begain laying, or 

 if the bees are working in the sections — and 

 I neither light a smoker nor take a veil. I 

 just work slowly and carefully. But the us3 

 of a smoker is a great saving of time. So 

 is a veil, as one need not be quite so careful. 

 I do not mean by this that I work roughly 

 or mutilate the bees. I mean simply that I 

 can do faster work. 



A man accustomed to bees can go into an 

 apiary where the bees are quite cross, and 

 stay ten or fifteen minutes; and if the 

 hands are free to use in protection, no 

 stings will be received. At the same time a 

 novice might be stung almost immediately, 

 and a number of times, if he stayed that 

 long. Pulling down the hat over the eyes, 

 shading the face with the hands and arms, 

 etc., help to disconcert the bees. 



If a colony should get unduly stirred up 

 so that a score or two of ugly bees follow 

 about in an angi-y mood, I cany a wire- 

 cloth " paddle " in my tool-box, and with 

 this a few quick blows will kill the whole 

 lot of them, so that peace is restored. 



