84 THE WEAPON OF DEFENCE 



Many remedies for bee stings are extant, the 

 blue bag being the most ancient, and as it contains 

 a good deal of ammonia or soda, it is a sound 

 scientific remedy. We use liquid ammonia when 

 we trouble to use anything. Sometimes it relieves 

 at once, but at other times it seems to have no 

 effect. Vinegar, raw onions, and oil of winter- 

 green are said to be very good, but prevention is 

 better than cure, and, as a general rule, we get very 

 little trouble. A vicious colony should always be 

 got rid of by providing it with a new queen. 

 Some people have a notion that nasty colonies 

 are the best workers, but this is a delusion of 

 a dangerous type. It stands to reason that bees 

 which waste their time rushing out after all and 

 sundry cannot devote all their energies to honey 

 gathering. My most gentle colonies have gener- 

 ally been the best honey gatherers. 



One characteristic bees have which will always 

 enable a person pursued by them to escape : they 

 will not enter dark places, other than their own 

 hives, and, by taking refuge in a shed, the bees 

 may be outwitted. 



On the whole, where bees are found to be a 

 nuisance, the trouble may be put down, in nine 

 cases out of ten, to bad management on the part 

 of a bee-keeper. The hives should be placed in 

 such a position that the flight of the forager is 

 not interrupted by passers-by, than which nothing 

 is more irritating to them. In the autumn, 



