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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION 



131 



kind of bees you have. If I find a cross 

 colony of bees I do away with that queen 

 and get a more gentle strain of bees. I 

 admit that among the bees I had at my 

 out-apiary were some pretty cross ones, 

 and, of course, not being on the place, 

 I did not know where the cross bees 

 came from; but at home I can tell, and 

 pick them out, I think everybody should 

 look after the bees, and then there will 

 be no trouble. 



Mr. Taylor — I think we can not be 

 too careful with our bees in this respect. 

 It is not altogether safe to rely upon 

 a high fence. Bees do not always sting 

 intentionally, often unintentionally. I 

 know of one instance. I had started to 

 go down town, and I had some bees 

 some distance back from the highway. 

 The bees flew across the highway to a 

 pasture beyond. I suppose they went 

 high enough when they went away, but 

 when they came back heavily laden it 

 was quite different ; and as I was driv- 

 ing down a bee came and touched me on 

 the eye, and of course eyes have » habit 

 of winking in such cases, and the bee 

 stung me. Now it is easily imaginable 

 great damage might be done just from 

 stings received in that way. Bees might 

 get into a horse's mane, or about his 

 eyes, and cause a runaway. You can 

 not be too careful. There is no need 

 of playing with bees and putting them 

 as near the road as we can. W" better 

 be like the Irishman and get thejn as 

 far away as possible. 



Mr. Thompson — I had about 75 colo- 

 nies behind a fence right near the street, 

 as Mr. Duff speaks of, and I want to 

 ask him if he ever experienced a nerv- 

 ous feehng when he heard a child cry 

 when he was not right on the ground? 



Mr. Duff — I never heard them cry. 



Mr. Moore — Mr. Pease has had 

 charge of an apiary opposite a public 

 school in Ravenswood, and I have heard 

 people say that their families are being 

 stung to death by those bees! 

 , Mr. Pease — I have had charge of 100 

 colonies of bees, and about 85 feet across 

 the street is the school. When I first 

 located the apiary at this place I had 

 some Kttle difficulty, not so much with 

 individuals as with an organization that 

 had the idea that we were to establish 

 a manufacturing plant at that point, and 

 they did not propose to take any 

 chances. A committee was appointed 

 and waited on me, and I was notified to 

 cease erecting a fence and apiary house 



which was being constructed ; that I was 

 going to needless expense, and that it 

 would only have to be torn down. I 

 disregarded that and went on with my 

 work, and after the first week or 10 days 

 the school children seemed to get ac- 

 customed to the bees. Nobody was stung 

 that I knew about at that time, but a 

 gentleman who lived some 2 blocks 

 away had been very greatly annoyed 

 with them, and he complained to the 

 Department of Health. An officer came 

 out. I showed him through the apiary, 

 answered all the questions he asked, and 

 possibly volunteered some information 

 for his benefit. He said, "I will have 

 to send in a report, but it will be one 

 that won't hurt you." 



Mr. Moore — Did he have a veil on 

 in this inspection? 



Mr. Pease — No, sir; he did not. He 

 went through the yard with me, neither 

 of us with a veil. I opened several 

 hives for him. I heard nothing more 

 from that source, and the only serious 

 case of stinging that I heard anything 

 about was from a little girl who was 

 stung through the sole of her shoe! 

 [Laughter.] 



Mr. France — I see in looking over the 

 work of the National for the year just 

 closing that there are 18 different places 

 where bees in cities have been attempt- 

 ed to be declared a nuisance and ordered 

 removed, and 2 which were ordered 

 removed. Now there is a cause for all 

 this. One team was stung to death 

 quite a distance away. The road was 

 225 feet from where 150 colonies were. 

 The man that operated the bees had 

 extracted them, and they were unusual- 

 ly cross. It was out of the honey-flow 

 season and they had become so cross 

 that he was compelled to put protection 

 on his hands as well as his face to fin- 

 ish the work of the day. There was an 

 irrigating ditch by the side of this road; 

 the banks began to give way, and men 

 were sent out to repair the ditch. They 

 had to leave on account of the cross 

 bees. The consequence was the water 

 broke the banks, ran over the land, and 

 the laws of the State make the irrigat- 

 ing company liable for all damages of 

 the water when it is out of its channel. 

 The next morning a team loaded with 

 grain, passing this road, was met by a 

 quantity of cross bees about 300 feet 

 away. By the time they reached where, 

 the water run across the highway, mak- 

 ing a mudhole, there were a good many 



