130 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



June 



et a few milliou bees can make. I peer- 

 ed into tlieir works in the tree, now 

 spread wide open. I never saw sucli a 

 combination of lioneycomb and mad 

 bees. 



I tlieu got my hive, buckets and 

 pans, and went to work. Just about 

 this time the sun came out from be- 

 hind a tree and shone as though it 

 had concentrated all its rays to focus 

 on my operations. The bees got mad- 

 der and crazier. One of the dogs had 

 come back as near as he dared, and as 

 luck would have it he flushed a skunk 

 so close by that the animal pervaded 

 all the atmosphere that was not full of 

 bees. I got entangled in grapevines 

 and thought 1 could hear a rattle- 

 snake, but the bees made such a whiz 

 I could only guess at it. I grabbed all 

 the honeycomb I could see through 

 my veil, put it in the buckets and had 

 everything full and more left. My 

 gauntlets became loose and a few bees 

 got into them, my veil leaked and let 

 in a few, then a small contingent got 

 into my hair! 



Now did those bees behave like 

 those Hermit tells about? Had the 

 "little wariors of a moment ago" found 

 they were to be robbed, and quit in 

 despair to fill up on honey? Not a bit 

 of it. 



My hat felt as if full of red-hot barb- 

 ed wire, and my hands as though they 

 well full of red-hot fish hooks. If any- 

 one had come along then he could have 

 seen it was my busy day, and he 

 would have gone right away about his 

 business somewhere else. 



As soon as I could get out of the 

 grapevines, rocks and brush, I made 

 for the creek and away from where I 

 seemtd to be as fast as I imagined a 

 man with only two legs to work with 

 could progress. 



Talk about things with strings on! 

 All the things I had tied on to keep 

 the bees out were now keeping them 

 in! Some of the bees I took with me 

 wanted to get out, but they couldn't, 

 so they stayed with me — stuck right to 

 me. When I did get out of my extra 

 duds, every bee was simply stupified 

 with victory and satiated with re- 

 venge. I sat down to recover my 

 senses and incidentally to pick the 

 stingers out of myself that the bees 

 seemed to have had no further use for. 

 My dog seeme<l to have thought I was 

 insane, and he even risked the bees to 

 get around somewhere where I could 



fall over him in my mad career. Now 

 he condoled with me, and I asked him 

 if he had ever made one of such a pair 

 of fools before in his life. He looked 

 skeptical and was non-committal, but 

 between his experience with the bees 

 and his traffic with the skunk he seem- 

 ed to feel humiliation too. 



I left for home with half a barrel 

 of honey-comb, two or three pounds 

 of honey, a swelled head, a smarting 

 anatomy, lots of experience and a fond 

 hope to get a chance at Hermit and th« 

 bee editor of Forest and Stream come 

 day. 



The foregoing account is merely the 

 record of the first day's operations 

 with bee tree No. 1. I never quit an 

 enterprise that I undertake so long as 

 I think the rest is easy, and that I 

 have had the worst of it. I went back 

 to those bees. I spent the next two 

 days with them, and dreamed of them 

 the intervening nights. There are 

 about eight gallons of them, and at 

 this writing I have them on my prem- 

 ises. I brought them down in two 

 loads, corked up in a keg and a box. 

 Whether I have one, two or three 

 swarms I don't know yet. I poured 

 them out and drove them into my new 

 gums with a switch. I divided them 

 as near as I could. 



Today they all seemed to be bavins 

 a time of it themselves to get straight 

 ened out and reorganized. They ge1 

 out on the piazza to their new homes 

 and march from one hive to the other 

 They stand on their heads, kick at th( 

 sky and biizz and counter-march. ] 

 don't know what their plans are, bul 

 I do know they haven't quit fighting 

 back. They have not missed a rea 

 sonable chance to sting me. It is said 

 that when they sting they die; if this 

 is true and they keep at me, they wil 

 all commit suicide. There are only s 

 few million of 'em left. Before I en 

 my next bee tree I will wait unti 

 I can wear an ordinary shaped hat 

 Meantime I will think up some on th( 

 subject. Ransacker. 



P. S. — I suppose there are apiarians 

 who think they know all abopt bees 

 and have written books. To the nov 

 ice I offer my advice free, viz.; don'i 

 try to read up on bees. You woulr 

 never get it all. Either cut a be< 

 tree and hive a swarm or two. or b( 

 content with patent honey made ou1 

 of sorghum and nitro-glycerine. R. 



