224 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



eral. A little good talking and live-bee dem- 

 onstration work will do a lot of permanent 

 advert sing. 

 LIVE- BEE WORK IN A CHURCH OR PUBLIC HALL. 



1 have had an idea for some time that this 

 same plan could be used in a lecture hall or 

 church at night. At the request of the 

 youig people of our own church I tried the 

 experiment by taking the cage shown in Fig. 

 1 and mounting it on the pulpit platform. 

 The audience was first treated to the natu- 

 ral history of the bee, general facts about 

 the honey business, and then was presented 

 with a series of stereopticon slides followed 

 by a moving- picture exhibition showing 

 many of the familiar operations in a bee- 

 yard as they actually occur in every- day 

 practice. 



The evening's entertainment was then 

 closed with an actual live-bee demonstration 

 inside of the cage. A colony of bees right 

 from their winter quarters outdoors had 

 been put inside of the cage some hours be- 

 fore the evening's entertainment, to allow 

 the cluster to warm up and expand over the 

 combs. I felt some misgivings as to the 

 success of the experiment, but nevertheless 

 decided to take my chances, come what 

 might. 1 took off my coat and vest, rolled 

 up my sleeves, so the bees would not get up 

 the sleeves, stepped into the cage, lighted 

 my i^moker, and opened up the hive just as 

 1 would do in the summer. Just how the 



bees that had just come from a long sleep 

 would behave, whether or not they would 

 spot up every thing with their liquid faeces, 

 was largely a matter of conjecture. How- 

 ever, I pulled out the combs, patted the bees 

 on their backs, and, contrary to what you 

 might expect, they were not affected by the 

 artificial lights. Indeed, they behaved m 

 every respect like bees that had been havmg 

 flights every day in summer. There was no 

 spot of any kind, and I had no difficulty 

 whatever in shaking the bees into a big dish- 

 pan, and scooping them up by the handfuls 

 before the audience. I then told them that 

 any one could do that the same as I; and in 

 proof of the assertion I asked a young man 

 who had never had any experience with bees 

 to step into the cage, with bare hands and 

 arms, and do exactly as I told him. 1 cau- 

 tioned him, of course, about makmg any 

 quick motions, and explained how he must 

 run his hand down gently under the mass of 

 bees in the dishpan, which bees I had shak- 

 en up into a heap. He secured a good hand- 

 ful and held them up before the audience. 

 I had previously picked out a man of good 

 nerve who, I felt sure, would do as I told 

 him, and he did. This stunt pleased the au- 

 dience perhaps more than any work that I 

 did. Then I told him how to disengage the 

 bees from his hand by one quick shake. 

 He stepped out, without having received a 

 single sting, then I invited into the cage one 

 of our regular apiarists, and we together 



FIG 5 -THE WAY THE PEOPLE CROWDED AROUND THE ROOT CO. 'S HONEY-SELLING STAND 



AT THE AKRON FAIR. 



