BEES 
Anyone Who Desires to Do So Can Learn 
to Manipulate Bees 
Any person with fairly steady nerves 
and some patience and courage can easily 
learn to control and manipulate bees. 
There are, it 1s true, a few exceptional 
individuals whose systems are particu- 
larly susceptible to the poison injected 
by the bee, so much so that serious effects 
follow a single sting Such cases are, 
however, very rare. In most instances 
where care is not taken to avoid all stings 
the system eventually becomes accus- 
tomed to the poison, so that beyond mo- 
mentary pain a sting causes no incon- 
venience 
How to Avoid Stings 
Stings can be avoided, first, by having 
gentle bees If no other point of superior- 
ity over the common brown or black bee 
than that of gentleness could be fairly 
claimed for some of the races introduced 
and some of the strains developed in re- 
cent years, it would still be worth while 
to get them on this account alone. When 
the fact of superiority in several other 
important points is considered also, there 
should be no further question as to the 
advisability of procuring them in prefer- 
ence to the common variety. 
Fig 1 
The Bingham Bee Smoker. 
Of the races already in general cultiva- 
tion, Carniolans are the gentlest, although 
Caucasians, more recently introduced 
from Southeastern Russia and only now 
being put on sale, are by far the least in- 
clined to sting of any bees, and may be 
handled at all times without resorting to 
the protection of a bee veil, and generally 
without smoke, or at most, a very slight 
application of smoke. Some strains of 
Italians equal in gentleness average Car- 
585 
niolans, but in general the race native to 
Italy is by no means as gentle as that 
found in Carniola, Austria, and the Cau- 
casians are much to be preferred for the 
beginner In case these gentler races are 
not easily procurable he need not hesi- 
tate, however, to undertake, after adopt- 
ing due precautions, the manipulation 
of pure Italians 
In crossing well-established breeds the 
males of a gentle race should be used, 
Bee Veil. 
otherwise the workers of the cross may 
vary greatly in temper, especially in the 
first few generations. Only careful selec- 
tion continued for some time will so fix 
the desirable traits as to result in their 
reproduction with a fair degree of cer- 
tainty in the offspring. Bees having the 
blood of blacks and Italians are nearly 
always quite vicious in the case of the 
first cross, and are even harder to subdue 
with smoke than are pure blacks. Other 
races need not be considered here, as they 
are adapted to special purposes; and the 
skill of the bee master, the conditions of 
climate, flora, etc., and the particular line 
of production to be followed, should de- 
cide whether their introduction is advis- 
able or not.* 
* For a fuller discussion of this subject, see 
“The Honey Bee: A Manual of Instruction 
in Apiculture,” by Frank Benton, M. S. Bulletin 
No, 1, new series, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, third edition, 1899, 
Chapter I, pp. 11-18. 
