Management of Bees. 51 



by some, the odour of the smoke being very strong. 

 Again, chloroform has been used. Take Punch's 

 advice in another matter, "Don't." We know a 

 case to the point. Some years ago a Wiltshire 

 gardener was asked to go and chloroform some bees 

 and take their honey. This gardener was very much 

 afraid of bees. As he was gone some time, the 

 master of the house went to look after him, and 

 found him lying down beside the hives with the bees 

 stinging him proper. In his nervousness, the 

 gardener had chloroformed himself and not the bees, 

 and he was badly stung into the bargain. Some bees 

 are naturally vicious. When this is the case, destroy 

 the queen, and put another in its place. Of course 

 it would take time for this to take effect, as the 

 vicious bees would want a little time to die off. 

 Many bee-keepers say this is a good plan to cure 

 vicious bees. Take a scarecrow and make it as much 

 like a man as possible, and post it near the bees to 

 be tamed. Smear something or other over the scare- 

 crow to make it smell disagreeable, and the bees will 

 go for it. Many bees will lose their stings, not being 

 able to withdraw them. Those who lose them — 

 which will, of course, be the worst tempered — will 

 die. This is well worth trying. 



Some years ago, at shows, bees were transferred 

 from skeps to bar-frame hives in the following way. 

 The operator smoked the bees, drove them from the 

 skep into another skep, and then cut out all the 



