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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



those principles forms a combination that is 

 as novel as it is startling. 



As I have previously explained, Mr. Fer- 

 ris is only a three-year-old bee-keeper. He 

 was not wedded to old ways and methods, 

 but at the very inception of his experience 

 he devoted himself ardently to the subject 

 of swarm control and honey production. Un- 

 like some would-be inventors, instead of 

 launching out into the doubtful field of in- 

 vention without the knowledge of what oth- 

 ersjhad done, he studied thoroughly all the 

 methods in vogue, and then went at it and 

 got up a system of his own. 

 ;_ While I doubt somewhat that the system he 

 describes will revolutionize the plans used by 

 old bee-keepers, yet it will place strong em- 

 phasis on some of the good ideas so persist- 

 ently advocated by such successful bee-keep- 

 ers as the Dadants, R. F. Holtermann, and 

 other advocates of colonies in large hives, 

 and in the end do good. Mr. Ferris will 

 show that we have possibly been frittering 

 away our time with little picaninny colonies, 

 while we might better have concentrated 

 our energies into powerful colonies made so 

 by two queens in mammoth hives, where the 

 bees can concentrate their energies. 



When it is understood that our friend 

 found it necessary to use a derrick employ- 

 ing a combination of ropes, pulleys, cog- 

 wheels, and levers, in order to handle his 

 hives, a feeling of pity as well as ridicule 

 may come over the hearts of some of our 

 bee-keeping friends, perhaps. But let me 

 request all such to withhold judgment until 

 they see the whole system in its entirety; 

 for it is to be explained through these col- 

 umns for the first time. One thing more: 



Mr. Ferris feels that he can produce as 

 much comb honey as extracted off from a 

 given set of bees; and when you see his 

 comb-honey arrangement you may recognize 

 some old features, and perhaps same old 

 combinations; but I think you will acknowl- 

 edge that nothing exactly like it was ever 

 used before by any bee-keeper. 



The editor is not making any claims for 

 this system, for that would be preniature at 

 this time. He only knows that it is one 

 that may well receive the careful thought of 

 every intelligent bee-keeper who is looking 

 on the doUars-and-cents side of the business, 

 whether he adopts the plan wholly or in 

 part. 



FATALITIES FROM BEE-STINGS; HOW BEES 

 MAY BE HANDLED WITH IMPUNITY. 



During the last few days there have been 

 various accounts in the Eastern press of a 

 farmer who, when hauling a colony of bees 

 home, was stung to death by them. It ap- 

 pears that a severe jolting of the wagon 

 loosened the cover, allowing the bees to es- 

 cape, with the result as stated. The farm- 

 er's son was stung, and the presumption is 

 that the horse received his fair share, but 

 nothing serious is reported in either case. 

 From the account given, it is hard to say 

 whether the man died as the direct result of 

 the stings or because of a weak heart. In 



any event, cases of this kind are exceeding- 

 ly rare. But whenever there is a fatality 

 resulting from bee -stings the newspapers are 

 inchned to make a great hurrah about it, 

 leading the general public to believe that 

 the sting of a bee is most deadly. In the 

 twenty years that J have been connected 

 with this journal I do not remember more than 

 three or four cases where a loss of life has 

 occurred as the direct result of bee-poison. 

 FataHties to horses and other stock are 

 equally few and far between. 



Had the farmer taken the pains to rope or 

 nail his cover down, or even if he had had a 

 lighted smoker, no such result would have 

 occurred, probably. As a general thing, bees 

 that have been jolted over the road are very 

 tractable. Our readers know that there are 

 not a few practical bee-keepers who advise 

 putting bees into a wagon without even 

 closing the entrances of their hives. The 

 bees are smoked when being put on the 

 wagon, and the hives are driven off at a 

 rapid rate. It is well known that drum- 

 ming on box hives to force the bees out into 

 other hives induces quiet on the part of the 

 bees. In the same way, the jolting over 

 roads in a wagon produces the same effect. 



In comparison with this, a recent per- 

 formance by Prof. H. A. Surface and as- 

 sistants, in Capitol Park, Harrisburg, Pa., 

 stands out in strong contrast. The profess- 

 or had given out in the papers the previous 

 day that he would on the following day take 

 a swarm of bees out of a squirrel- box in one 

 of the park trees at a given time. Accord- 

 ingly, barehanded, with nothing over his 

 face, and armed with only a smoker, he as- 

 cended the tree by means of a ladder, smok- 

 ed the bees, then knocked the box loose. 

 This he then let down with a rope, to the 

 amusement of crowds of people aggregating 

 something like 800 who had come to witness 

 the wonderful stunt. 



After Prof. Surface had descended to the 

 ground he pried the box open, scooping out 

 the bees by the handful, to the great amaze- 

 ment of the onlookers. He then took occa- 

 sion to say there was no such thing as man- 

 ufactured comb honey, giving an offhand 

 lecture on bees and their habits. 



The bees were successfully placed in a 

 modern hive and removed to the Real Estate 

 Building, on the third floor of which is lo- 

 cated the Division of Zoology. During the 

 whole performance Prof. Surface received 

 no stings except those self-inflicted for the 

 amusement of the crowd. 



The various accounts in the newspapers 

 showed that the public was tremendously 

 interested, and the immediate effect of such 

 a demonstration will be to stimulate the de- 

 mand for honey, and at the same time re- 

 move the general impression that bees are 

 always bent on mischief, and will sting on 

 the slightest provocation. The bee-keeping 

 industry as a whole may well congratulate 

 itself that it has in its ranks a scientific 

 man who not only understands bee life but 

 is capable of handling bees themselves bare- 

 headed and barehanded. 



