1877. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



181 



AXffCrZIlL or £££8. I confess I do 

 not like the term "anj^er," when applied to 

 bees, and it almost makes me angry wlien I 

 liear people speak of tlieir being "mad," as 

 if they were always in a towering rage, and 

 delight in inflicting exquisite pain on ev- 

 erytliing and everybody coming near them. 

 l]ees are on the contrary, tlie pleasantest, 

 mtist sociable, genial and good natured little 

 fellows one meets in all animated creation, 

 when one inulerstands them. Why, we can 

 tear their beautifnl comb all to bits right be- 

 fore their very eyes, and without a particle 

 of resentment, but with all the patience in 

 the world they will at once set to work to 

 repair it, and that too without a word of re- 

 monstrance. If you pinch them, they will 

 sting, and any body that has energy enough 

 to take care of himself, would do as much 

 had he the weapon. 



We as yet know very little of bees com- 

 paratively, and the more we learn, the easier 

 we find it to be to get along without any 

 clashing in regard to who shall be master. 

 In fact, we take all their honey now, almost 

 as fast as they gather it, and even if we are 

 so thOTightless as to starve them to death, 

 no word of complaint is made. 



We should try to bear in mind that a sin- 

 gle bee, bears much the same relation to the 

 colony, as does one of our lingers or toes, to 

 us. If somebody carelessly or purposely 

 'I)inches a toe or finger, self preservation de- 

 mands that we make him stop, and if you 

 crush a bee, the whole hive remonstrates 

 and threatens ; in fact they do this if you i 

 only give them reason to think they may be i 

 in danger of injury. Your business is to as- 

 sure them by your cavefid and gentle move- 

 ments that they need fear no injury from i 

 you, and then you will find them very pa- i 

 tient. and as tractable as any of our domestic ; 

 animals. I 



There are a few circumstances, under 

 which bees. seem "cross," and although we : 

 may not exactly be able to account for it, ! 

 we can take precautions to avoid these un- 

 pleasant features by a little care. A few [ 

 years ago a very intelligent friend procured I 

 some Italians, an extractor, »&c., and com- 

 menced bee culture. He soon learned to 

 handle them, and succeeded finely ; when it , 

 came time to extract, the whole business 

 went on so easily, that they were surprised 

 at what had been said about experienced 

 hands being needed to do the work. They | 

 had been in the habit of doing this work ; 

 towards the middle of the day, while the I 

 great mass of the bees were in the fields, as I 



I had directed, Init in the midst of a heavy- 

 yield of clover honey, when tlie liives were 

 full to overflowing, they were one day 

 stoi)ped by a heavy tliunder shower. This 

 of course drove the bees home, and at tlie 

 same time washed the ii'oney out of the l)los- 

 sonis so completely that tliey had nothing to 

 do but remain in the hives until more was 

 secreted. Not so witii their energetic and 

 enthusiastic owners ; as soon as the rain liad 

 ceased, tlie hives were again opened and an 

 attempt rnade to take out the frames, as but 

 an hovu- before, but the bees that were all 

 gentleness before, 'seemed possessed of the 

 very spirit of mischief and malice, and when 

 all hands had been severely stung, they con- 

 I eluded that prudence was the better i)art of 

 valor and stopped operations for the dayl 

 AVliile loads of honey were coming in all the 

 while, and every bee rejoicing, none were 

 disposed to be cross, but after the shower, 

 all hands were standing around idly, and 

 when a hive was opened, each was ready to 

 take a grab from his neighbor, and the re- 

 sult was a free fight in a very short time. I 

 know of nothing in the world that will in- 

 duce bees to sting witli such wicked reck- 

 lessness, as to have them get to quarreling 

 over combs or honey that are left exposed 

 when they have nothing to do. - From a lit- 

 tle carelessness in this respect, and nothing 

 else, I have seen a whole apiary so demoral- 

 ized that people were stung when passing 

 along tlie street several rods distant. Du- 

 ring the middle of the day when bees were 

 busily engaged on the flowers, during a good 

 yield, I have frequently left filled combs 

 standing on the top of a hive from noon un- 

 til supper time without a bee touching them, 

 but to do this after a hard rain, or at a time 

 when little or no honey was to be gathered 

 in the fields, might result in the ruin of sev- 

 eral colonies, and you and your t)ees being 

 voted a nuisance by the whole neighborhood. 

 Almost every season we get more or less 

 letters complaining that the bees have sud- 

 denly become so cross as to be almost un- 

 manageable, and these letters come along 

 in July, after the clover and linden have be- 

 gun to slack up. The bees are not so very 

 imlike mankind after all, and all you have 

 to do is to avoid opening the hives for a few 

 days, until they get used to the sudden dis- 

 appointment of having the avenues through 

 which they were getting wealth so rapidly, 

 cut off. After a week or ten days, they will 

 be almost as gentle as in the times when 

 they gathered a half gallon of honey daily, 

 if you are only cr.reful about leaving liives 



