182 



GLEA^IXGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



apsn tocv long, or leaving any bits of honey 

 or comb about. 



Within a few f3?t of n>6 sits a yoiui^ nr.in 

 who once laiijlisci abant being afraid of 

 bees, and ommenced work in tiie apiary 

 with such an earnest gootl will that I had 

 high aspirations for hint. One beautiful 

 morning he was tacking rab]jets into the 

 hives in front of the door to the lioney bouse, 

 whistling away, as happy as the bees that 

 were humming so merrily alx>ut his head. 

 Pretty soon I saw some honey and bits of 

 combs that had dropped froa> one of tlie 

 hives, scattered about on the ground. I told 

 him he had better stop and clean it up, or 

 he wovdd certainly get stung ; as tlie bees 

 seemed very peaceable while licking it up, 

 he thought he would let them have it, in 

 spite of my warning. After they had taken 

 all the honey they began buzzing about for 

 more, and not tinding any, in a very ungen- 

 erous way commenced stinging him for his 

 kindness. His lesson was a more severe one 

 than I had expected for they not only drove 

 him from the apiary that morning, but I 

 fear for all time to come, for although years 

 have passed, he has never since wanted any- 

 thing more to do with bees. I regret that 

 he did not at the time also leam the folly of 

 insisting on leaving his own way. 



I can not tell you, at iiresent, why bees 

 sting so coolly and vindictively just after 

 having had a taste of stolen sweets, yet 

 nearly all the experience I have had of 

 trouble with stinging, has been from this 

 very cause. Bees from colonies that have a 

 habit of I'obbing, will buzz about ones ears 

 and eyes for hours, seeming to delight in 

 making one nervous and fidgety, if they 

 succeed in so doing, and they not only threat- 

 en, but oftentimes inflict the most painful 

 stings, and then buzz about in an infuriated 

 way, as if frantic because unable to sting 

 you a dozen times more after their sting is 

 lost, The colonies that furnish this class of 

 bees are generiilly hybrid, or perhaps black 

 bees having just a trace of Italian blood. 

 These bees seem to liave a perfect passion 

 for following you about, and buzzing before 

 your nose from one side to the other (until 

 you get cross-eyed in trying to follow their 

 erratic oscillations) in a way that is most es- 

 pecially provoking. One such colony an- 

 noyed us so much wliile extracting, that we 

 killed tlie queen altliough she was very pro- 

 lific, and substituted a full blood Italian. 

 Although it is seldom a pure Italian follows 

 one about in the manner mentioned, yet an 

 occasional colony may contain bees that do 



it ; at least we have found such, where the 

 woricers wer3 all three bandecL Tliat it is 

 passible to have an apiary without any such 

 disagreeable bees, we Imve several times 

 demonstrated, bvit oftentimes you wUl have 

 to discard some of yoiu' very best honey 

 gatlierers, to be entkely rid of them. 



With a little practice the apiarist will tell, 

 as six)n as he comes near tlue apiary whetlier 

 any angry bees are about, by the high key- 

 note they utter, when on tlie wing. It is 

 well known that with meal feeding we have 

 perfect tranquility although bees from every 

 hive in the apiary may be working on a 

 square yard of nieaL Xow shoidd we sub- 

 stitute honey for the meal, we should liave a 

 perfect " row," for a tiiste of lioney found in 

 the open air dmang a dearth of pasturage^ 

 or at a time when yoiu" bees have learned to» 

 get it by stealing instead of honest industry 

 seems to have the effect of settijig every bee 

 crazy. In some experiments to determine 

 how and why tliis result came about, we had 

 considerable experience with angry bees» 

 After tliey had been robbuig, and had be- 

 come tranquil, we tried theiu with (by sug- 

 ar ; the quarrelsome bees fought about it 

 for a short time, but soon resmued their reg- 

 ular business of hanging about the well filled 

 hives trying to creep into every crack and 

 crevice and nmking themselves generally 

 disagreeable all rouncL If a hive was to be 

 oi>ened, they were into it almost before the . 

 cover was I'aised, and then resulted a pitched 

 battle between them and the imuates ; the 

 oi)erator Avas sure to be stung by one or 

 both parties, and pretty soon some of the 

 good people in-doors would be asking what 

 in the world made the bees so awful cross, 

 saying that they even ciinie in-doors and 

 tried to sting. Now why coidd they not 

 work i)eac3ably on the sugar as they do on 

 the meal, or the clover blossoms in June ^ 

 We dampened the sugar with a sprinkler, 

 and the bees that were at work on it soon 

 started for home with a load ; then began 

 the high key note of robbing, faintly at first, 

 then louder and louder, until I began to be 

 almost frightened at the mischief that might 

 ensue. When the dampness was all licked 

 up, they soon subsided into tlieir usual con- 

 dition. The effect of feeding honey in the 

 open air, is very much worse than from feed- 

 ing any kmd of syrup, and syrup from white 

 sugar incites robbing in a much greater de- 

 gree than that from brown sugar ; the latter 

 is so little relished by tliem that they only 

 use it wlien little else is to be found. It is 

 by tlie use of damp brown sugar that we get 



