553 



.GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



each hand. Frequent lightings of the dingy, 

 broken-handled lamp, and lively skirmishes 

 under the bedclothes for fleeing but not van- 

 qnished cimexian brigands, made me per- 



FIG. 3.— THE IJIVE WITHOUT THE ISUKPLUS O 

 ING ATTACHMENTS. 



fectly willing to exchange those two dozen 

 or so of wingless varmints for the ten thou- 

 sand bees in bed. But I had no choice. 

 There was a "katabasis" with "the ten 

 thousand" in the eai'ly morning. 



I have had some interesting psychological 

 experiences with my bees, showing that the 

 cerebellum often acts before the cerebrum 

 can get in its work. Once a supexintendent 

 of schools volunteered to carry my cases — 

 indeed, he insisted on it. I thought to im- 

 press upon him the honor he had received by 

 mentioning that I had ten thousand bees in 

 that case, when he instantly dropped it on 

 the sidewalk — didn't even take time to I'ea- 

 son that I had been carrying it for many 

 miles. A similar experience occurred with 

 a colored porter in a hotel at Indianapolis. 

 The oliicious "gemmen" dropped not only 

 my case but my umbrella and overcoat, by 

 the hotel desk, and ran to the corner. I sup- 

 pose he thought that every thing was infect- 

 ed by pernicious bees. Since then I never 

 explain. "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis 

 folly to be wise." 



But sometimes I come near to a smashup 

 of my case without any explanation — indeed, 

 with hardly an apology. In a trolley car, a 

 heavy drunken man fell on top of both my 

 cases, and for a time sprawled and flounder- 

 ed around on them like a turtle on top of an 

 inverted tumbler. He seemed active, but 

 unable to get very far. I collared him, and 

 a passenger volunteered to pull his leg and 

 thus we got him off. Those bees must have 

 thought that a hurricane had struck their 

 forest of hollow trees! But, fortunately, the 

 case was strong and nothing was broken. 

 In all my travels, not a bee has escaped to 

 sting any one. I release all for the day at 

 every place I stop, and they gather pollen 

 and nectar as regularly as if at home. Some- 

 times the releasing is from an open window 

 in my hotel bedroom, sometimes from a fire- 

 escape landing (several stories up), or from 

 the campus of some college. I rest or lec- 

 ture, and the bees go foraging. 



Of course, having once let them loose they 

 can be fastened in only at night. In a nor- 

 mal shool in Michigan the hive was left in a 

 broad window. I completed my lectures on 

 Friday. I shut in the bees that 

 night, as I was to leave by the 

 noon train on Saturday. Imagine 

 my chagrin upon going to the 

 school at about 11:00 a.m., to get 

 the hive on my way to the train, 

 to find that the fool janitor had 

 opened the slot and released the 

 bees. " I thought you had forgot- 

 ten it, and so I let them out to let 

 them feed this forenoon. I knew 

 you were going at noon." 



"But, you meddlesome igno- 

 ramus" (I guess I used even 

 stronger language), "how do you 

 think I can get them in to go at 

 noon when they are coming and 

 going, and five thousand bees are 

 out all over the city and sur- 

 rounding country?" 

 "Oh-h-h! I hadn't thought of that — you 

 can shut them in only at night — I see." 



Could words express one's feeling? What 

 a lot of trouble is caused by not thinking of 



FIG. 4. — BRACE-COMBS BUILT TO THE GLASS 



IN THE traveler's HIVE TO 



PREVENT JAB. 



