1881 



GLE AIRINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



331 



DOOIilTTIiE: ANS^VEKS QUESTIONS. 



[Continued from June No.] 



KILLING BEES A WRONG. 



fKI END Bradford thinks my comparison between 

 killing bees and a cow too larg-e; that bees are 

 — ' God's " creatures "—not ours, and that God no- 

 tices every bee we kill by carelessness; also that he 

 don't think of profit when trying- to save their lives. 

 [q regard to the comparison being too large between 

 the killing of a cow and a bee, I wish to say that we 

 might say a sheep and a hive of bees, if that would 

 please better; but it was not to compare things of 

 equal value I was after, but to show that it was no 

 more sin to kill one than the other; and the claim 

 that, because you eat or sell the carcass of the one 

 proves more than the selling the product of the other, 

 is a difference without a distinction. Women are 

 supposed to be kind and tender-hearted beyond men, 

 so hear what Mrs. L. Harrison says in the Prairie 

 Farmer:— 



Bee-keepers are apt to denounce tliose who brimstone their 

 bees, as cruel and unchristian: how about those who let them 

 starve? We were once talking with a kind-hearted Dane, who 

 handled his bees so !?ently for tear of crushinct one, about what 

 he was going to do with a number of his colonies tjiat were des- 

 titute of stores. He replied, "I'm going to brimstone them. 

 The farmer selects his animals that he has no further use for, 

 fattens ajid kills them, and no one calls him cruel. Why has 

 not a bee-keeper the same right? I'm not able to bity sugar for 

 these colonies, and they would perish with starvation before 

 spring. The fumes of brini.stone will kill them in a moment; 

 and is not this better than to die a lingering death by stai-va- 

 tion!" 



Mr. Jones, of Canada, saj-s. " There is one redeeming fe.ature 

 about the system of bee-keeping practiced in Cyprus. Palestine, 

 and Syria; that is, although they .are heathens they do not brim- 

 stone their bees as do the Christians of Europe and America " 

 Although they do not "brimstone their bees," we see. byh's 

 own account, that they let them starve. He savs, ' ' It has bf en 

 the worst honey yeai- ever known iir Cyprus Three-fourtI s o 

 the bees died last spring, and since then three-fourths of tho e 

 that were left have died, so there are none in some localities, 

 and only a few in others . ' ' 



If we supersede a queen, we have first to decapitate the reign- 

 ing majesty, or destroy her in some way before anfither will be 

 accepted; and yet we have never heard this practice denounced 

 as unchristian. We have never had an occasion to brimstone 

 bees, for we unite the small colonies early in the fall, if we have 

 any, and feed them, to insure young bees and plent.v of stores 

 for winter; yet we think it is" a mistaken idea, about its being 

 cruel to do so, any more than to kill a chicken. 



Question: If Mrs. H. is correct (which I claim she 

 is), is it more sin to kill a few bees in handling, to 

 save time, than it is to kill a whole swarm to save 

 buying sugar for them? That bees are God's "crea- 

 tures," and all else living, I am willing to admit; but 

 all were created for the hem fit of man, and man has 

 the control of all, as the inspired word of God tells 

 us, where the Psalmist says,— 



For thou hast made him (man; a little lower than 

 the angels, and hast crowned hira with glory and 

 honor. Thou madesi him to have dominion over 

 the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things un- 

 der his feet.— Psalm 8 : 5, G. 



Again, the apostle James says,— 



For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of ser- 

 pents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath 

 been tamed of mankind.— James 3 : 7. 



Thus we see God gave man control and power over 

 all creatures he has made; and I can see no differ- 

 ence between killing a sheep or cow to eat, or sell, 

 thus receiving profit thereby, or a hawk, skunk, or 

 crow, to save our property, and killing now and then 

 a bee that is worth less to us than our time, thus 

 saving time, "for time is money." As to killing 

 God's creatures carelessly, if friend B. will look on 

 the ground he treads upon he will see he scarcely 

 takes a step in the summer season without killing 

 some of the smallest of God's creatures; yet he 

 stops not, but walks on regardless of it; yet he holds 

 himself accountable to God for the bees he kills! If 

 the ground were thickly strewn with bees instead of 



worms, spiders, bugs, etc , we would, all of us api- 

 arists, step over or around them. Why? because 

 there is a profit in the bees; and this is the reason 

 we treat the bees better than we do the spiders and 

 bugs, whether we are conscious of it or not. Now, 

 ,iust one thing more while we are on this profit ques- 

 tion. I see some bee-keepers think it is not right to 

 spend time on the Sabb'ith to hive bees that swarm 

 on that day. We have been in the habit of staying 

 home from church during the swarming season to 

 hive our bees, believing if God did not design man 

 to care for swarms of bees on the Sabbath, he would 

 not have allowed them to swarm on that day. Well, 

 one day we were taken to task by a good brother in 

 the church, who made duiryirg a business, for our 

 neglecting the house of worship from four to six 

 Sabbaths each year to hive our bees. Says he, " It is 

 not right; go to church; and if your bees swarm and 

 go off, thank God for what there is left." I said, 

 " Brother C, you keep cows, do you not? " 



"Yes." 



"And milk them on the Sabb.ith?" 

 . "Yes." 



" Why do you milk them?" 



"We— 11; the cows would suffer if not milked for 21 

 hours, and I milk them to relieve suffering." 



"Just so; but don't you take a pail with you when 

 you go to milk on that day?" 



"Yes." 



" And don't you take the milk to the house, strain 

 it, and, if it is very warm, skim it to keep the cream 

 from taking hurt?" 



"I own such is the case." 



"And don't these chorea, as you call them, keep 

 you from praj-er-meeting Sabbath evenings? or if 

 you go, aren't yon tirfd and weary?" 



" Such is often the case." 



"Well, now, brother, you see, to save the milk 

 from those cows, and care for them the year round, 

 you work ten times the amount on the Sabbath, in 

 the course of aryear, ihat I do with the bees, and all 

 for the profit accruing therefrom." 



"I admit you are right, brother D., and hereafter 

 I will not complain of you till I don't take a pail with 

 me when I milk on the Sabbath." 



In conclusion, I wish to say I do not believe it right 

 to make a business of working on the Sabbath, nor 

 do I kill any more bees than I can help, consistent 

 with doing what apparently is a necessity; still, I do 

 claim that a man has a perfect right to hive his bees 

 on the Sabbath, as well as to milk his cows, feed his 

 horse, pigs, hens, etc., which no one considers as 

 wrong. I also claim that it is no more a sin to kill a 

 bee than to kill a spider or a snake, and that, when 

 there is mere profit in killing them than in sparing 

 their lives, we are justified in killing them. 



Borodino, N. Y., May 20, 1881. G. M. Doolittle. 



It makes me feel rather sad, to think we 

 must have all this discussion in this niatter, 

 and especially so much of it in favor ot be- 

 ing less careful than we have been of taking 

 their little lives. Our boys often leave queen- 

 cages standing abotit, containing bees only, 

 after the queen has been used. It is, of 

 course, more trouble to take these dozen or so 

 bees to a hive than to let them remain im- 

 prisoned and starve ; but, my friends, the 

 thought of these little fellows dying in this 

 way would so haunt me that t could not be 

 happy anywhere, and, busy as I am, I often 

 take them to a liive and let them out myself, 



