THU MEMERICSH be® JOWRIfSI,. 



393 



it that we paid for that. Honey was 

 wotlli 18 cents a poiinil then, but hogs 

 were worth 8 cents, anil we hail no 

 corn to feed them. 

 Vermont, Ills. 



HANDLING BEES. 



Iliiils iilioiit llic Use or Smoke, 

 Veil and Clove§. 



Written for the Country QetUleman 



BY JOHN M. STAHL. 



The secret of handling bees is not to 

 fear them. Not a few will say that I 

 am wrong, but gloves for the hands, 

 gauze for the face, etc., should very 

 rarely be used. Bees do not sting 

 until they are exasperated. Nothing 

 exasperates them more than accidents. 

 The person with gloves on his hands, 

 and gauze before his eyes, is bound to 

 be awkward. He handles the bees 

 and all the paraphernalia of tlie apiar}' 

 clumsily. He lets something fall, or 

 topples something over. He jars the 

 hive, or injures the bees. The less 

 disturbance possible to the bees, the 

 less the chances of arousing all their 

 ill-temper. The per.son with gloves 

 and gauze is more awkward and slow ; 

 he cannot handle the bees with celerity 

 and deftness. Hence he precipitates 

 the catastrophe. Angering the bees 

 should be prevented, rather than pro- 

 tecting oneself by the very means cal- 

 culated to anger them. The excite- 

 ment and exasperation of the bees 

 harm them — are a loss to the apiarist ; 

 hence are to be guarded against, for 

 full as good a reason as the escape 

 from a sting. The man who is more 

 afraid of being stung than of exciting 

 the bees, is not a good apiarist. 



Because of this, I condemn the fre- 

 quent use of smoke by many. Some 

 bee-keepers are very fond of smoke. 

 They must have a smoke in the yard 

 almost every time they touch a hive. 

 This is foolish, and worse. Smoke is 

 to be used onlj- as a last resort — in an 

 emergency. It seems to me that few 

 know how to use it judiciously. It is a 

 violence to the bees ; and as the api- 

 arist values the well-being of his colo- 

 nies, and the fullness of his pockets, 

 he will do as little violence to his bees 

 as possible. My observation convinces 

 me that this ever-present smoke is re- 

 sponsible for more stings than it pre- 

 vents. 



I know some men who handle from 

 fifty to one hunJred colonies without 

 gloves or gauze, and likely without 

 using smoke once during the season. 

 Of course 1 do not condemn smoke al- 

 together. There is a great difterence 

 among colonies. I have mot with a 

 few colonies that could not be bandied 



much without smoke, and I gave them 

 a dose with pleasure. 



It is now easy to guess why the pei-- 

 son who is afraid of bees is apt to get 

 stung. He is nervous as .soon as he 

 gets within thirty yards of a hive. He 

 makes quick, jerk}' motions, exasper- 

 ating to anything that has sense. He 

 spills and drops and jars until the bees 

 could not be otherwise than angry ; 

 and he increases the evil by the pre- 

 cautions he has taken against being 

 stung. I ha,ve seen these nervous men 

 cru.sh bees — in transferring, for in- 

 stance — by the dozen, not through 

 carelessness, but because the}- were so 

 nervous and scared that they hardly 

 knew what they were doing. Is it 

 anj' wonder that the fellows of the 

 crushed bees tried to avenge their un- 

 timely taking oft' ? And I must con- 

 fess that I was glad when they suc- 

 ceeded and made the murderously- 

 nervous person howl. 



I feel earnestly about this matter 

 because I was converted, and powerfuUy 

 converted. Once I was afraid of bees. 

 Had only about 25 colonies, and got 

 stung in handling them. A neighbor, 

 Mr. Finlay, had above 100 colonies ; 

 used neither gloves nor gauze ; it was 

 very rarely that smoke was seen in his 

 apiary, and yet he laughed at being 

 stung. One daj' I was passing, and 

 he called me in to see his bees, as he 

 said. Trembling, I went, for I sur- 

 mised that he wanted to try me. It 

 was a "wet spring," and we both were 

 bare-footed, with our trousers rolled 

 up to our knees. We were in our 

 shirt sleeves, and he had his sleeves 

 rolled to his elbows. He took me in 

 among his hundred colonies. To show 

 how brave I was, I stood very near a 

 hive. " I wanted to see if you knew 

 how to handle bees," he said, "and I 

 see already that you don't ; any pei-- 

 son that knows how to handle bees 

 will never stand right in front of a 

 hive" he will keep out of the way of 

 bees all he can, and yet do his work. 

 You can stand against the back or side 

 of a hive and not disturb the bees ; but 

 get before the entrance, and jou inter- 

 fere with their nKjvements. Now, stand 

 here ; stand still. If you strike at a 

 bee you'll be stung to death. You 

 know how to handle a horse as well as 

 any one I ever saw, but among bees 

 you are a coward. I want to make 

 you a man among bees." 



Reader, I ivas scared, and " Curg " 

 laughs yet when he recalls the episode. 

 I was so scared that I cannot give an 

 account of what he did. I onlj' know 

 that in three minutes every blessed 

 bee he had (so it seemed) was swarm- 

 ing around me. I stood there, still ; 

 and I have no doubt that my hair lifted 

 my battered straw hat from my head. 

 He kept me theie until the bees re- 



sumed their normal condition. I was 

 not stung once ; and I was cured of 

 being afraid of bees. 



Since then my line of action has 

 been marked by sweetened water 

 rather than smoke ; and handling bees 

 has become pleasant, instead of very 

 disagreeable work ; and I have been 

 more successful. 



Adams Countv, Ills. 



CLOSE SPACING. 



The Curiosities of Bee.Liitera- 

 ture. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY J. E. POND. 



The article of Mr. E. P. Churchill, 

 in the Amrican Bee Journal, leads 

 me to take the above heading for my 

 text. 



The matter of which he. writes, viz : 

 Close spacing of bees is one that has 

 been discussed in the bee-jieriodicals 

 of the United States and Great Britain 

 for a number of years, and I had sup- 

 posed that the glory or shame of in- 

 troducing the subject belonged to 

 another writer than Mr. Churchill. I 

 therefore desire to ask him when he 

 originated the idea ? What scientific 

 points he bases it upon ? and what, in 

 his judgment, is or are the reason or 

 reasons why it produces the eft'ects he 

 claims ? 



As for myself I deem the matter one 

 of great importance ; I believe that the 

 adoption of the principle, when fully 

 understood, will work a revolution in 

 bee-keeping, and with that belief I de- 

 sire to learn all I can in regard to it, 

 and wish that Mr. Chruchill would de- 

 vote an article to the subject of in- 

 forming us on what natural theory it 

 is based. 



North Attleboro, Mass., May 29,1888. 



ONTARIO. 



The Ilaldiiiiand Bee.Keepers 

 Meet and Talk. 



Reported by the Secretary, 



E. C. CAMPBELL. 



The Haldimand Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation met at Nelles' Corners on Mon- 

 day, May 28, at 1 p.m., the President, 

 Mr. James Armstrong, in the chair. 

 The following members were pres- 

 ent : W. Kindrec, E. Kindree, H. 

 Smith, O. Fathers, E. Gee, F. Mehlen- 

 bacher, Israel Overholt, Geo. Snider, 

 Geo. Werner, W. Best, F. Rose, H. 

 Coverdale, Fred Harrison, Jas. Cald- 

 well, Eli Grobb, H. Ackland, and the 

 Secretary. 



