274 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



glorious feed. Like the "two young 

 bears of wanton mood," of which the old 

 English Reader used to tell us, they 

 thought they had nothing to do but take 

 and eat. 



With the pole, they brought down a 

 mass of the comb large enough to supply 

 the ship's crew for a week, and with it 

 millions of bees. They never tasted it. 

 Luckily for them they were near the 

 water. It was every man for himself, 

 and let the bees take the hindmost — and 

 the bees took them. Some of the crew 

 were fearfully stung, and were only 

 saved by plunging into the water, and 

 swimming to the boat. 



It is some years since the above was 

 related to me, and I regret that I cannot 

 call to mind what part of the coast it 

 was on, as it might throw some light on 

 the African bees, and what is being said 

 and written about them. 



The gentleman in question is Mr. Ben- 

 jamin Wood, of Toronto, and if this 

 should meet his eye, he would much 

 oblige many readers of the Jourxal, 

 myself, and I am sure its able editor, by 

 giving a detailed account of the affair. 



Bognor, Ont. 



Mr. D. A. Jones comments upon the 

 above as follows : 



We do not wonder that when they 

 pushed down a large mass of comb and 

 bees that the boys had to take to their 

 heels. We have had some little expe- 

 rience with African bees, and one of the 

 worst stingings we ever had was from 

 these bees. It was in the garden belong- 

 ing to the Khedive of Egypt. 



In strolling through his fine grounds, 

 we came to the apiary, and wishing to 

 have some samples of his bees, stooped 

 down in front of a hive, and commenced 

 catching the bees by their wings, and 

 slipping them into a small vial of alcohol, 

 which we usually carried to preserve 

 specimens. During the operation one of 

 them happened to turn and get her sting 

 into our finger, and as soon as the odor 

 was caught by the other bees they 

 swarmed in. on us in thousands. The 

 bottling business was soon stopped, and 

 we made for a very thickly-wooded bush, 

 but they could fly as quickly as we could 

 run, and although the wood was very 

 thick it did not prevent a large number 

 from sticking to us, and our recollections 

 now are that those we killed stopped 

 following, but the rest stuck to it. 



We believe that African bees would 

 follow a person almost any distancce, but 

 it seems hardly probable that the kind 

 of bee found in the northern, part of 



Africa would be likely to store such large 

 quantities of honey, and can only account 

 'for it in this way : as they swarmad, the 

 different swarms clustered in the under 

 side of the cliff, and although they were 

 separate colonies, their combs might be 

 built adjoining each other. 



Doubtless many still remember Mr. 

 Benton's getting specimens of Aiiis Dor- 

 sata, in Ceylon, where he found a large 

 number of colonies all clustered on the 

 under side of a cliff. 



Although their combs were very large, 

 and some of them close together, yet 

 there were about 14 colonies. In a 

 country where the bees have to get oo 

 the under side of cliffs in the absence of 

 any other place, it is not unreasonable 

 to suppose that a large number of colo- 

 nies might be clustered together. 



A friend, writing us from India, stated 

 that he saw a large number of colonies 

 so clustered, and he termed it a small 

 village of bee colonies attached to the 

 under side of a cliff. — Canadian Bee 

 Journal. 



Re-QDeeiiing Apiaries witli Panic Bees, 



E. L. PKATT. 



The Funics are truly wonderful bees, 

 and are answering to all their claims. 

 Mr. AllQy says: "They are the most 

 prolific, gentle and hardy of any race or 

 strain of bees I have ever had anything 

 to do with. They will supersede the 

 Italians." 



The queens are the most even layers I 

 have ever seen. Lift a fresh comb from 

 a Punic colony, and one will see the most 

 beautiful work in the way of egg-laying 

 ever beheld. Every egg will point down- 

 ward in line with the grain of the cells, 

 and one could swear that the queen used 

 a straight-edge when putting them in. 

 Not a cell will be skipped. 



The bees are as quick as a flash, and 

 are off to the field in almost no time. 

 On their return they look and act like 

 robber bees — with the same quick 

 motions. They pass through the traps 

 in a moment. It does one's heart good 

 to watch them ; I never before saw such 

 lightning rapidity in .motion. I have 

 spent hours watching them, and picking 

 them up in my fingers, as they go and 

 come, simply to hear the little fellows 

 squeal, as a young queen will when 

 handled. 



They refuse to sting. If the sting 

 happens to stick a little into one's skin 

 while being rolled about in the fingers, 



