Bee Tcitt Described. 



301 



very cold water. In case horses are badly stung, as some- 

 times happens, they should be taken as speedily as possible 

 into a barn (a man, too, may escape angry bees by enter- 

 ing a building), where the bees will seldom follow, then 

 wash the horses in soda water, and cover with blankets 

 wet in cold water. 



A wash or lotion, " Apifuge," is praised in England as 

 a preventive of stings. The hands and face are simply 

 washed in it. I have tried it but could see no advantage. 

 The substances used are oil of wintergieen or methyl 

 salicylate. 



THE SWEAT THEORY. 



It is often stated that sweaty horses and people arc 

 obnoxious to the bees, and hence almost sure targets for 

 their barbed arrows. In warm weather I perspire most 

 profusely, yet am scarcely ever stung, since I have learned 

 to control my nerves. I once kept my bees in the front 



yard they looked beautiful on the green lawn — within 



two rods of a main thoroughfare, and not infrequently let 

 my horse, covered with sweat upon my return from a 

 drive, crop the grass, while cooling off, right in the same 

 yard. Of course, there was some danger, but I never 

 knew my horse to get stung. Why, then, the theory? 

 May not the more frequent stings be consequent upon the 

 warm, nervous condition of the individual? The man is 

 more ready to strike and jerk, the horse to stamp and 

 switch. The switching of the horse's tail, like the whisker 

 trap of a full beard, will anger even a good-natured bee. 

 I should dread the motions more than the sweat. 



Often when there is no honey to gather, as when we 

 take the last honey in autumn, or prepare the bees for 

 winter, the bees are inordinately cross. This is especially 

 true of black bees and hybrids. At such times 1 have 

 found an invaluable aid in 



THE BEE TENT. 



This also keeps all robbers from mischief. It is simply 

 a tent which entirely covers the hives, bees, bee-keeper and 

 all. The one I use (Fig, 118) is light, large, and easily 



