AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 8i 



ignorance, for I do not know of any good remedy. 

 I have tried everything that has been recommended, 

 with the hope that I might discover something to 

 benefit others, but without success. Bathing the 

 wound with very hot water is perhaps as good as 

 anything. The sting being barbed cannot readily be 

 withdrawn from any tenacious substance, like the 

 human flesh, but is, with the poison bag attached, left 

 in the wound, and the best way of removing it is to 

 scrape it out with the finger, or thumb nail, so as to 

 prevent pressing the poison bag. 



HOW TO OPEN A HIVE. 



Light the smoker and get it well going ; then don 

 the bee veil; blow a few puffs of smoke into the en- 

 trance of the hive, and wait a short time; then blow 

 in another puff or two. The cover can now be re- 

 moved, and as one corner of the mat is lifted blow a 

 little smoke under it : by this time the bees are under 

 control, and the mat can he removed altogether. Keep 

 your smoker by you, and if bees get in the way, or 

 " boil " up over the frames, give a little more smoke. 

 The smoker will keep alight if stood on end, and to 

 put it out, plug up the nozzle with a piece of cork 

 or bunch of grass. 



HANDLING THE FRAMES. 



When the hives are made properly there is always a 

 little play on one side of the frames when they are 

 pressed together to allow the first one to be easily 

 removed. A " hive-tool " like that in Fig. 50 is handy 

 for lifting the first 

 frame, and it also 

 answers as a 

 scraper. In fact, 

 something of the 



kind is needed all Fig. 50.— hive tool. 

 the time one is at 

 an open hive. A small screw driver also makes a 



