(^'^ OLDEST BEE PAPER 

 -■'^ IN AMERICA 



.^. 



ES TABLISHED (i)l<«V 

 IN 1661 - 



VOL. XIX. 



CHICAGO, ILL., MAY 16, 1883. 



No. 20. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 



Poisoning Troublesome Bees. 



We have recorded many cases where 

 persons, who object to bees being 

 kept near their premises, have re- 

 sorted to poison to rid themselves of 

 a supposed or real annoyance. 



For several years we had from .50 to 

 100 or more colonies of bees on the 

 lot behind the Bee Journal office, 

 and in the fall, when there was noth- 

 ing for the bees to gather, they be- 

 came very troublesome to neighbor- 

 ing grocery stores. In one case they 

 invaded the store and drove out not 

 only the customers but the clerks and 

 the proprietor also. The latter came 

 to us with his sad complaint and pro- 

 test, and only regained possession of 

 his store by the use of brimstone. It 

 was hard on the bees, but they were 

 trespassers, and we entered no pro- 

 test. In order to avert further trouble 

 with our neighbors, as well as the 

 city authorities, the bees have been 

 taken into the country. 



Now, suppose, that these bees had 

 been poisoned, what an amount of 

 trouble it would have entailed ! 



We have reports from California 

 and other localities where trouble has 

 been experienced in the same direc- 

 tion—and, in some cases, poisoning 

 were resorted to. 



Our attention has been called to 

 this matter afresh by the following 

 article, kindly sent us by some un- 

 known friend, in a copy of the Younc/ 

 Scientist, published in New York. The 

 editor remarks as follows : 



CAUTION TO BEE-POISONERS. 



From notices in several of our ex- 

 changes we learn that some thought- 

 less and ignorant persons, urged by 



so-called scientific men who certainly 

 ought to know better, are attempting 

 to destroy by poison such bees as 

 annoy them. Aside from the fact 

 that "such a practice is contrary to 

 law, to good morals, and to right feel- 

 ing, those who think of adopting this 

 vile practice should remember that it 

 is not at all impossible that they may 

 take the life of something much more 

 important than a few bees. Some 

 human being may fall a victim, and 

 tiien the poisoner may find himself in 

 the clutches not only of a guilty con- 

 science, but of the law. Nor is it 

 necessary that man, woman or child 

 should find access to the vessels set 

 out for the destruction of the bees ; 

 unless under extraordinary conditions 

 tlie bees will carry to their hives, be- 

 fore they die, an amount of poisoned 

 food sufficient to render the lioney in 

 their combs virulently poisonous. 



This is not a mere surmise or theory, 

 but a fact, which, some years ago, we 

 demonstrated clearly and fully to our 

 own satisfaction. The records of the 

 experiments were unfortunately de- 

 stroyed in the great fire which con- 

 sumed the " World Building " last 

 January, but the results were so clear 

 and unequivocal that we can give 

 tliem from memory without any ma- 

 terial inaccuracy. 



In these experiments we established 

 small colonies of bees in locations 

 where they could not mterfeie with 

 other colonies, and selecting times at 

 which food was scarce, we fed them 

 upon syrup to which poison had been 

 added. In every case we succeeded 

 in destroying the bees, but it was only 

 in a very few cases that we failed to 

 get poison from the honey in the hive, 

 and in these cases the bees took the 

 poison only when no other source of 

 food supply was open to them. In 

 many cases the bees that carried the 

 poison to the hive did not seem to 

 suffer till long after the young bees 

 were all dead ; in some cases the 

 queen was amongst the very first to 

 fall a victim, and next came the young 

 bees, just emerged from the cells. 



We used about a dozen different 

 varieties of poison in our experiments, 

 and we fed it to the bees at distances 

 from their hives varying from three 

 feet to a mile and a half. Tlie latter, 

 of course, was easily done by means 

 well known to every bee-hunter. 



When arsenic or Paris green was 

 used we found no difficulty in detect- 

 ing arsenic, by means of the usual 

 chemical tests, in the honey taken 

 from the hive. A little of the honey 



added to the liquid in a Marsh's ap- 

 paratus readily gave the beautiful 

 characteristic arsenical mirror, and 

 some of the honey fed to mice killed 

 them very quickly. 



Nor is this to be wondered at. The 

 honey-sac of the bee is not a true 

 stomach, but rather a muscular bag, 

 which exerts very little action on its 

 contents. This is readily seen in the 

 case of the delicate odors of fiovvers 

 which are retained by the honey in 

 the comb after it has passed through 

 the honey- sac of the bee. Hence, we 

 have clover honey, basswood honey, 

 buckwheat lioney, etc. — all readily 

 recognizable after they have been de- 

 posited in the hive. As might be 

 supposed, therefore, when the bee has 

 but a short distance to go, it invaria- 

 bly succeeds in depositing several 

 loads of the poisoned honey in the 

 hive before it succumbs. \Vhen the 

 distance is very great the case is dif- 

 ferent, and many bees will then die 

 on the way, or just after reaching 

 their hives. But in ordinary cases it 

 is only those bees whose hives are 

 quite near that prove an annoyance, 

 and they are the ones that are least 

 affected. 



To attempt to poison bees, there- 

 fore, is to attempt to mix poison with a 

 common and much-valued article of 

 human fond, and the consequences 

 may be of the most serious nature. 

 We feel assured that all that is neces- 

 sary, in order to put a stop to the 

 practice, is the diffusion of accurate 

 knowledge on the subject. 



Bees ill Southern Florida. — The 



Florida Despatch of last week contains 

 the following item : 



Mr. J. H. Hendrick, the apiarist of 

 Cedar Key, has commenced transfer- 

 ring his Italian bees to a more South- 

 ern locality. Some time since he car- 

 ried a colony to his new home at 

 Indian Rocks, Clearwater Harbor, 

 where he will move his large apiary 

 as soon as the honey season is over. 



1^ After getting a Binder in which 

 to place the numbers of the Bee 

 Journal, as received, Mr. F. L. 

 Dresser remarks as follows : " The 

 Binder for the Weekly Bee Journal 

 is received, and I am very much 

 pleased with it. It doubles the value 

 of the .Journal, which is saying a 

 good deal." 



