June 22, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



387 



hausted. But in taking- it oflf great care must be exercised 

 not to press it or pinch it, as the poison-pouch would thus 

 be entirely emptied into the wound. It should be brusht off 

 ■or scraped off without a second's delay. The smell of the 

 poison is very noticeable, and reminds one of the smell of 

 ants, for it is indeed very similar to formic acid. This pun- 

 gent smell irritates the bees, and adds to their irascibility. 



But if the sting of bees is a dangerous poison, it proves 

 to have also medical properties, like most violent poisons. 

 It is a well known fact that it has often cured rheumatism. 

 At least numerous reports of such cures have been made at 

 •different times by bee-keepers thru the papers, and this is 

 •doubtlessly not without good foundation. But this is a 

 ■" heroic remedy," and very few people will be willing to 

 get stung experimental^- for this purpose, unless they be 

 as indifferent to stings as Reaumur, the great entomologist 

 ■of the XVIIIth century, who relates in his book having 

 caused a wasp to sting him at three different times in suc- 

 ■cessioii, just to see whether the wasp would be able to 

 -furnish as much venom at the last as at the first. He found, 

 as might have been expected, that the last sting was not 

 -painful because the venom-sac had been emptied by the 

 two previous punctures. He saj-s that at a fourth trial he 



tXPLflNftTORY. 



C— Poisoa-sac. 



A— .\wl. 



U. U— Barbs. 



i.I — Hollows in lancets 



'T' — Groove in lancet. 



JM— Tube from sac to 



reservoir. 

 B, B — Lancets. 

 •O, O— Openinjjs from 



hijUow in lancets. 

 S— Reservoir. 

 E, E -Valves. 

 H — Hollow in awl. 

 T. T— Ridffes in aw1. 



Sting with Lancets drawn one side, cross-section of Sting, 

 and a Lancet, much magnified. 



could not succeed in inducing the insect to sting again. 

 The poor wasp had evidently given it up for a bad job. 



The queen-bees have a sting, but it is small, curved, 

 and used only in fighting with rivals. A number of experi- 

 menters have reported being stung by queens, and in every 

 instance the sting was said to cause but little pain. The 

 poison-sac of the queen is like her sting — of secondary im- 

 portance. 



What is the necessity of so dangerous an " arm " as the 

 bee possesses ? Is it solely so she may be able to defend 

 herself against us ? This is not probable, and altho it is 

 possible tliat without such a weapon the bees might long 

 ago have been destroyed by man's rapacity, so as to disap- 

 pear entirely from the earth, yet this weapon is neces.sary 

 "to them to protect them against many other enemies. There 

 are a number of honey-eating insects that are both larger 

 and stronger than the honey-bee, and some animals, like 

 the bear, are so fond of honey that the fear of the stings 

 alone can keep them away. But in their own hive the bees 

 need a weapon. Were it not for that weapon, it is quite 

 probable that those big, burly drones that are reared every 

 spring with such care, and so mercilessly destroyed in the 

 fall, would take advantage of their size to live on thru the 

 winter at the expense of the workers, and with the great 

 risk of starving them out. 



If they are well armed for attack, our bees are also well 

 fitted for defense. As many a combat takes place between 

 inhabitants of different hives, owing to the greed and pil- 

 fering dispositions of many bees when the honey season is 

 at hand, if one bee could readily pierce another with its 



venomous sword, great mortality would ensue. Luckily 

 Nature has drest them in an armor— a coat of mail— the or- 

 dinary shell of most insects, made of a horin- substance 

 called "chitine." So it isonlyinthe joints of' this armor 

 that the bee is vulnerable, hence the long fights between 

 inhabitants of different hives, and the ease with which the 

 robber often gets away, Hancock Co., 111. 



Putting- Up Extracted Honey in Glass Paekag-es. 



BY C. DAVENl'OKT. 



SOME one has said in effect that it might be of benefit to 

 others if we would describe our mistakes and failures, 

 so I am going to mention ho%v I lost about S70 besides 

 much time and work. Still, the matter could hardly be 

 called a failure, for a most singular success was attained, 

 but not just in the manner expected or desired. 



When commencing to put extracted honey on the mar- 

 ket the best style or kind of package was with me a matter 

 of much perplexity, and after trying many and various 

 kinds of packages, I finally decided that the Mason glass 

 jars, in their various sizes were, all things considered, 

 about the most satisfactory packages that could be obtained 

 here for the retail grocery trade. The glass itself, barring- 

 accidents, lasts an indefinite leng-thof time, and as the caps 

 or covers are made of zinc they do not rust, and if they be- 

 come discolored or old-looking there are a number of prep- 

 arations by which they can be very quickly and easily 

 cleaned so that they look as bright as when new. On this 

 account these jars, after being emptied, represent, or are 

 worth, about as much money as when new — something that 

 can hardly be said in favor of any other retail package 

 with which I am acquainted, and usually eveti the most 

 thrifty of housewives will hardly object to the cost of the 

 jars, owing to the almost universal use that is made of them 

 by all classes for canning fruit. 



But I found one great objection to their use, and this 

 was that soon after they were filled the honey would ooze 

 or run out enough around the rubber ring to keep the jar 

 sticky. At first I thought the rubber rings I had must be 

 defective, or of poor quality, but I found out, as undoubt- 

 edly every one else has who has used this style of package, 

 that with no kind of rubber rings can honey be sealed so 

 but what enough will escape to keep the package sticky, 

 and this makes it, aside from being disagreeable to. handle, 

 very objectionable in other ways, for it catches and holds 

 the dust and attracts flies and other insects, and on this 

 account I found a number of grocers who, after a trial of 

 them, refused to handle or have anything to do with them. 



So I went to work and tried to make some kind of a 

 band or ring that would hold honey, and the expense I have 

 mentioned was for dies, material, traveling- expenses, etc., 

 during the time I was working at this. 



I had a long talk with a man who bottles up tons of ex- 

 tracted honey each season ; he uses corks and sealing-wax, 

 and said a wide-moutht jar with a screw cap was preferable 

 in manj' respects, but he had found the same difficulty I 

 have described, and had tried rings or bands of different 

 material, but without success. He said it was the action of 

 the acid in honej- that made rubber rings defective for 

 sealing. 



I did not say anything about the work I was doing in 

 this line, for I expected to meet with success, obtain a pat- 

 ent, and soon be able to spend the winters in Florida, or 

 even start a new bee-paper, if I got more money than I 

 could conveniently spend otherwise ! 



I will not take space to describe the various work and 

 experimenting that I did, for I found out that if an ordi- 

 nary rubber ring was dipt in melted beeswax the whole 

 problem was solved, for if the rubber is dipt in wax not a 

 particle of honey will escape, no matter, I believe, how long 

 it is left sealed. I have kept clover honey sealed nearly a 

 year before it candied, and not a trace of honey could be 

 detected oti the glass, and the jars were kept bottom side 

 up on purpose to test the matter. 



These jars and covers are at present made very 

 cheaply, and sometimes the cover, or rather the underside 

 of it, does not fit down close enough to the glass to enable 

 the ring to seal it tight all around, in such cases of course 

 the defect in the cover has to be remedied, or if not too bad 

 by using two rings it can be sealed tight. 



Before filling the jars with honey, or dipping the rings, 

 I look the covers over, and if any are not true, I have a de- 

 vice made to bring them in shape. I then test thera by 

 putting some water in a jar, then put on a ring and the 



