1906 



GLEANLN^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1171 



At the present tiaie, Sept. 13, the l^ees are 

 working on them more or less. That they 

 are gathering any appreciable amount of 

 honey is doubtful. 



At' one time there was consideral)le talk 

 about making goldenrod the national flower, 

 for the reason that the general family was 

 found to be more widely scattered over the 

 country than perhaps almost any other flow- 

 er. Whether it was finally adopted or not I 

 do not know. 



BEE-DEMONSTKATIOX WORK AT THE DETROIT 

 STATE FAIR; INCIDENTALLY, HOW TO SUB- 

 DUE BEES SO THEY CAN BE HANDLED LIKE 

 PEANUTS IN A PECK MEASURE; HOW TO 

 ADVERTISE AND SELL YOUR OWN HONEY 

 LOCALLY. 



At the request of M. H. Hunt & Son, of 

 Bell Branch, near Detroit, who were to have 

 an exhibit of bee supplies and honey at the 

 State fair, I agreed to do some demostratiou 

 work in a wire-cloth cage at that fair. Ac- 

 cordingly, when the time arrived I put in an 

 appearance on Sept. id and 3d and was soon 

 assigned my task. 



1 found that, as we had learned everywhere 

 where live bees are handled by the handfuls, 

 a crowd will soon gather. Unfortunately, 

 Mr. Hunt's exhibit was inside of a building, 

 whei'e only a few people could get a view; 

 but nevertheless some thousands saw how 

 bees could be handled, and had it pounded 

 into their heads at the same time that there 

 is no such thing on the market as manufac- 

 tured comb honey. 



In this demonstration work at Deti'oit I 

 gathered a few more ••pointers" literally as 

 well as metaphorically speaking. While it 

 is true I did get some four or five stings dur- 

 ing the day 1 was ••on exhibition." the point- 

 ers to which I referreil related merely to a 

 method of subduing any bees so they can be 

 handled like peanuts or popcorn in a popper. 



The secret of handling bees in a cage is to 

 demoralize or frighten them. One can do 

 stunts in handling bees in an enclosure that 

 he could not do out in the open; and I there- 

 fore believe that the crossest colony imagin- 

 able could be handled in a cage after it had 

 been '•subdued." 



Now, you ask, •'How subdue?'' Of course, 

 I take a' smoker inside of the cage; but after 

 opening the hive it is not again used. I have 

 a big dish-pan, and shake three or four 

 frames of Ijees into the pan, and replace the 

 combs. The very process of shaking, while 

 it first arouses, very soon subdues the bees. 

 To add to their demoralization, the pan is 

 picked up and shaken like a corn-popper, 

 the bees in the mean time rolling round in 

 one great shapeless mass. The crowd, as it 

 sees this large ball of bees dumped around 

 promiscuously, trying to free themselves, are 

 at once interested. The bees are now rolled 

 into one hand or as many as it will hold. 

 The next operation is to dump this handful 

 on top of the head. The bees in the pan are 

 put through the corn-popper act again. Then 



another handful, picked up as befoi'e, is 

 dumped on the head. In their state of per- 

 fect demoralization not one of the bees will 

 sting unless pinched. They will fly one by 

 one from the top of the head, bump against 

 the wii'e cloth, and finally work over to the 

 clustering-point. This is precisely what we 

 want. As soon as a small cluster has form- 

 ed, one hand is reached up among the bees, 

 and very gently a handful is ■•scooped" off. 

 This is dumped on the head. In the mean 

 time a little one or two minute lecture on 

 bees and on the genuineness of comb honey 

 goes on. As the crowd shifts about evei'y 

 one or two minutes, the talk is repeated,, 

 varied somewhat by reference to bee-stings 

 for rheumatism. 



The onlookers will indulge in all kinds of 

 comments, to the eft'ect that • • the bees have 

 been hoodooed," or "that fellow has pulled 

 out all their stings," or "he has put some- 

 thing on his hands so that they can not sting. ' ' 

 Then follows a denial of some of the allega- 

 tions. The crowd grows apace. More peo- 

 ple crowd up, when one will say, "Oh! I 

 know. Those bees hain't got any stings. " 

 This sally is met by the demonstrator with 

 an invitation to the chap to step inside of the 

 cage, when he will be ••shown" that every 

 one of the bees has a sting. He doesn't ac- 

 cept the ••invitation." He is offered a dol- 

 lar if he will come inside. ••No. thanks," 

 he responds. Then the crowd ••has the 

 laugh." 



Manv people will be interested in the dem- 

 onstration; and as the crowd moves along an 

 attendant outside shows the honey and ott'ers 

 free samples. Wooden spoons (little pieces 

 of section sticks) are dipped into the beauti- 

 ful liquid honey, when the crowd is invited 

 to •'sample." Sometimes this eft'ects a sale, 

 and sometimes it does not. 



While the Ijees are being dumped on the 

 head, the expression on the faces of some of 

 the women is comical in the extreme. If one 

 can read the countenance he sees a face that 

 does not believe its own eyes. Then she goes 

 off and tells her friends, and that is precisely 

 what we want. Get a woman to telling 

 about some "perfectly lovely"' or "awful" 

 thing at the fair, and she will' do some adver- 

 tising. 



The fair season is not yet over, and I have 

 given aljove briefly the method of procedure, 

 showing what to do, and how to subdue the 

 bees, or, as the fellow said, "hoodoo" them. 



This is Just the season of the year to ad- 

 vertise honey, and the small county fairs 

 are just the jjlace to do it. When the fairs 

 are over, get permission to use a stoi'e-win- 

 dow of the leading grocer some Saturday 

 afternoon, and if you don't find that this 

 bee-demonstration work will be the means 

 of your selling all your own honey, locally, 

 unless you produce so many tons that you 

 can more than supply the local market, I 

 shall be surprised. But the average bee- 

 keeper, with the average number of colo- 

 nies, by a little advertising of this kind, can 

 sell all" his own honey at nearly double the 

 price he can get in the city. 



