f?w^m: 



132 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



bees on hand, and the team was unable 

 to pull the load out of the mud; before 

 they could get them away both horses 

 were stung to death. The man was 

 compelled to get into the mud and be- 

 smear himself over, to save his own life. 

 The team cost $225 and the harness $25, 

 and the case came up. Should they 

 carry it into the court or settle it? I 

 am a compromise man — believe in set- 

 tling every time and keeping out of the 

 courts ; the further you carry it the 

 worse it becomes, as a rule, and I ad- 

 vised them, b\^ all means, to settle in 

 some way. I got a letter last night that 

 upon receipt of my letter he had taken 

 it over, at my request, to the party losing 

 the team, and had read him the letter, 

 and rather than go into court, he had 

 agreed upon a compromise settlement of 

 $195. There is also a counsel fee of 

 $2.50, making $197.50 as a settlement. 

 Now he wants the National to pay the 

 whole bill. We have a great many so- 

 called city bee-keepers that are keeping 

 bees. A few colonies will bother no one, 

 but when you come to develop that into 

 a good-sized bee-yard it is a different 

 condition of affairs, and I have had some 

 pretty trying times to get excuses and 

 help some of our members when the 

 bees — although there might be a high 

 board fence — made trouble. The indi- 

 vidual lay of the ground at each place 

 cuts a great figure. There may be a 

 high board fence, and if the lay of the 

 land is such on beyond that the bees 

 drop over the fence, and soon get to 

 the ground again, the fence ,is of little 

 protection. I think it is a -case for each 

 individual bee-keeper, if he learns the 

 bees are making an annoyance, to make 

 amends at once to those who have 

 grievances. Let us exchange our posi- 

 tion with the one who has the griev- 

 ance, and would we like to have the 

 bees spoiling the clothes in the spring, 

 and so on. as they do in the cities? 

 Would we like to be compelled to hitch 

 up our teams early in the morning and 

 shy around because a neighbor has bees? 

 I stopped at a hotel not long ago, where 

 the landlady said, "I would gladly give 

 you your board if you would tell my 

 neighbor "how to keep the bees out of 

 the pump." I said, "That is easy enough. 

 A piece of cheescloth will keep the bees 

 from going in, and it will strain the 

 water and make it cleaner." 



Mr. Moore — I want to say that car- 

 bolic acid smeared around the edges of 



troughs where bees congregate is very 

 disgusting to them, and has been used 

 to good effect. 



Mr. Kimmey — I tried it and it did not 

 work. 



Mr. Moore — Probably you did not 

 have it strong enough; 95 percent solu- 

 tion' — what they call pure? 



Mr. Kimmey — Yes. I got over the 

 difficulty by putting a barrel of salt in 

 their place. We laugh, of course, at 

 stories of stinging through the shoe and 

 all that, and wondered on second 

 thought whether that really occurred 

 or not, whether anybody was so foolish 

 as to make the complaint. But, after all, 

 it seems to me no one should put 

 colonies of bees 85 feet from a school 

 and expect to keep out of trouble. I 

 know, as this gentleman says, there are 

 times of season when you can go into 

 your bee-3^ard, and have children play 

 around the bees, and everything is love- 

 ly; but I also know, as far as my ex- 

 perience goes, that I never have seen an 

 apiary of 12 or 15 colonies but what a 

 child at some time of year was stung 

 and went about yelling, "I hurt myself 

 on a bee!" and the mother ran with 

 arnica, and there was trouble. I 

 shouldn't want to set myself down with 

 100 colonies of bees within 80 feet of 

 a school-house or a highway. It seems 

 to me, as bee-keepers, we ought to be 

 more careful, and put ourselves i-n the 

 place of the other fellow, and see if 

 we would like to be treated that way. 

 Where I have my bees, although I am 

 at least 100 feet from anybody, sur- 

 rounded by a green-house on one side 

 and a grove on the other, and at least 

 150 feet from the street, yet I am in 

 fear every day that I may have some 

 trouble. A year ago last spring, when 

 I put my bees out, a neighbor said, 

 "Mrs. Turner has had trouble with her 

 water. Her clothes are turned and she 

 thinks it is iron rust." I walked over, 

 and I said, "Mrs. Turner, I know what 

 is the matter with your clothes." She 

 said, "I wish you would tell me." I 

 said, "I put my bees out. If you will 

 take those clothes and put them in water 

 and wait until tomorrow to hang them 

 out, and send me the bill, I shall be 

 glad to pay the bill." "O, that is it?" 

 "Yes," I said "that is it." "O, it is 

 nothing at all. It only makes me a lit- 

 tle trouble, and perhaps they will be 

 the better for a second rinsing, any 

 way." I only say this because I do not 



