SMOKER DESCRIBED.
Get a tube of tin about five-eighths of an inch diameter, five or six inches in length; make stoppers of wood to fit both ends, two and a half or three inches long; with your nail-gimlet make a hole through them lengthwise: when put together it should be about ten inches. The ends may be tapered. On one end leave a notch, that it may be held with the teeth, which is the most convenient way, as you will often want to use both hands: it is also always ready, without any trouble to blow through, and also to keep the tobacco burning. When ready to operate, fill the tube with tobacco, ignite it, and put in the stoppers; by blowing through it you keep the tobacco burning while the smoke issues at the other end.
EFFECT OF TOBACCO SMOKE.
We can now subdue these combative propensities, or render them harmless; turn their anger to submission, and make them yield their treasures to the hands of the spoiler without an effort of resistance! When once overpowered, they seem to lose all knowledge of their strength, and no slave can be more submissive! After the effects of the smoke have passed off, their former animosity will return. Should any resentment be shown on raising a hive, blow in the smoke; they immediately retreat, "begging pardon." After a few times, they learn "it's no use," and allow an inspection. If you wish to take off a box, raise it just enough to blow under the smoke; there is no trouble; you can replace it with another; the bees are kept out of the way with a little more smoke, and no anger created about it to be remembered. Those in the box are all submission; they can be carried away and handled as you please, without a possibility of getting them irritated, until they once more get home, and then are much more "amiable" than if the box had been taken without the smoke. They seem to forget, or do not realize anything of the transaction. When bees are to be transferred to a new hive, it is unnecessary to be so very particular about the escape of a single bee; no fears need be entertained of such as get out. In driving, the loud humming indicates their submission; the upper hive can then be safely raised at any time. After being thus driven out, they may be pushed about with impunity, and still be quiet! In short, by using smoke on all occasions where they would be likely to be disturbed without it by our meddling with them, it has a tendency to keep dormant their combative propensities. When these have never been aroused, there is much less danger from their attacks while walking or looking among them. Any one wishing further proof, I would recommend the experiment of managing one year with smoke, and the next without.
STING DESCRIBED.
Their sting, as it appears to the naked eye, is but a tiny instrument of war; so small, indeed, that its wound would pass unheeded by all the larger animals, if it was not for the poison introduced at the same instant. It has been described as being "composed of three parts, a sheath and two darts. Both the darts are furnished with small points or barbs like a fishhook," that hold it when introduced into the flesh; the bee being compelled to leave it behind.
DOES ITS LOSS PROVE FATAL?
It is said "to the bee itself this mutilation proves fatal." This last is another assertion for fact, so often repeated, that perhaps we might as well admit it; seeing the difficulty we should have in disproving it. Only think of the impossibility of keeping our eye, for five minutes, on a bee that is flying about, after it has left its sting. Yet there are some persons so very particular about what they receive as facts, that they would require this very unreasonable thing of watching a bee till it died, before they could be positively sure that the loss of its sting caused its death. (It is much easier to guess.) They might even take analogy, and say that other insects possess so little sensation that they have been known to recover after much more extensive mutilation—that beetles have lived for months under circumstances that would have instantly killed some of the higher animals—that spiders often reproduce a leg, even lobsters can replace a lost claw, &c. I have put off describing any protection against their attacks, because I wish to get up a little more courage in our doings among them. Yet it is folly to expect all will manage successfully without something for defence.
MEANS OF PROTECTION.
The face and hands are most exposed; for the latter, thick woollen mittens or gloves are best; the sting is generally left when thrust into a leather glove. For the face procure one and a half yards of thin muslin or calico, sew the ends together, the upper end gathered on a string small enough to prevent it slipping over the head when put on. An arm-hole is to be cut out on each side; below is another string to gather it close to the body. As I do not expect you to work in the dark, we will have a place cut out in front, and a piece of coarse lace inserted; that which will just prevent a bee from passing, is best, as it gives us a better chance to see. To keep it from falling against the face, a wire is bent around and sewed fast. Any person that knows how to put on a shirt will manage this. When thus equipped, and other garments of proper thickness, the most timid ought not to hesitate to venture among them, when necessary. I cannot avoid cautioning you again to beware of irritating your bees, until this protection is necessary, as it is a rather bad state of things. With this on, you cannot conveniently use any smoke. To put this on and off is considerable trouble, and every time you go among them, if you have to resort to this, I fear some necessary duties will be neglected. Whenever a partial protection will do, I would recommend a handkerchief; it is always at hand, and can be put on in a moment; throw it over the head, letting the ends fall around the neck and shoulders, covering all but the face. The hat can come on over it. As for the face, whenever a bee comes around in a menacing attitude, hold it down—unless he stings at the first onset, there is not much risk.