Morning journal and courier., 1886-07-14
BEES AND YELLOWJACKErs,
A Good-Natured Man Tells What HI
 Knows About Them.

A Goo0-N atured Man Tells What He Knows About Them. [From the Philadelphia Telegraph "A bee is very playful and good-natured animal" said gray headed man with be- 1 nevolent smile, standing near the entrance l of the beehives at the Zoo yesterday "The only thing you want to be careful about when you come anywhere near bee is never to hit him. That is you must never attempt to hit him, for the chances are just about nine out of ten that you 'cawnt do it. if you try.
 ''Now the difference between bee and a yellowjacket is just about this: A yellow jacket is the most vile and disreputable in- sect ever created. They suffer from chron- ic disordered temper. It is never safe to pick up yellowjacket, and nothing makes a jellowjacket more happy and gives rise to a more general feeling of unhappiness on the part of human susceptibility than to have some unredecting person take hold of him. It is then that the little yellowjacket's soul throbs with iendish delight and misery seizes the unfortunate victim.
 'EThe habits of these insects are peculiar" |" continued the benevolent man. "A bee never stings person more than once. His apparatus has barbed point and when it enters any substance it stays there This finishes up the bee for good. He lives but few minutes after losing his sting" The department of bee culture is one of the amusing and instructive features at the Zoo at this time of year. Four or five large box hives stand in wire inclosure, and from this shady spot yesterday afternoon an interesting lecture on the habits and the pe- culiarities of the insects was delivered to large and attentive outdoor audience. The only d1stractlng influence that occasionally marred the fine points of the lecture was the competition of the House of Refuge band, which thumped out the strains of melody with a vigor that calmed the savage hearts of beasts. But the lecturer went on just the same. He removed the wooden slides from the boxes and kept up talking with 8 swarm of busy insects flying all around him. The people stared at the lecturer partly with mis- trust, as if they suspected that he coated his hands and face with a preparation to neu- tralize the sting of the bees. Otherwise it seemed incomprehensible that this man could stand there in the midst of them and gesticulate with impunity, while his hearers shuddered with fright whenever a little honeymaker came 'biz-z-z' past their ears
 ''There need never be any fear of at tack from bees," said the lecturer, "unless you begin the attack by striking at them. Then they respond with savage impulse. 1 should say if whole swarm of bees were to surround man and sting him the effect would be fatal The venom of the honey bee is very painful. But when treated kind ly they are harmless. This shows their in telligence. They become accustomed to per sons in the habit of attending them"
 In little frame building near the office of the superintendent there are three more hives with glass cases, where the movements and habits of the bees can be studied. The most curious trait to watch is the removal of the dead bees. The working bees only live four weeks and they dying off every five min utes in the day. As quick dies the others carry him out of the hive immediate ly and fly away with him somewhere. A dead bee never stays in the hive longer than it takes to carry him out of it. Sometimes they attack one another desperately when one, if not both, is killed. At other times two or three of the workers will sayagely at- tack drone and kill him. And all the time the work of making the sweetest of honey goes on ceaselessly night and day, and the little insects with the sharp sting never seem to grow weary.
 After the lecture was over the benevolent man with the whiskers and shiny gray eye, who knew all about bees hornets, wasps and yellowjackets, started to explain things. He seemed very fond of the insects and he had the temerity to pick one up to explain the difference between drone snd worker.
 ''Do you know," said the man who picked the bee up, "that hornet is the
 
 pleasant one to fight with, that people ever knew? A person who is stuug by hor- net feels ready for bowling war dance, and it all comes from not understanding one disagreeable characteristic of them. If a man was sharp a hornet could never sting him. The minute strikes or throws a stick at him he instantly responds by making for him in a line straight as the range of a theodolite. And he always gets there. But if the man saw him coming and only had sense enough to dodge him, the hornet wouldn't get there. And what is pe- culiar, the hornet would go straight back to the identical point he started from and make another sally for his victim. But just us often as the man kept lodging he would never get stung. It only requires man with nerve enough to stand his ground and agility enough to dodge quicker than the hornet can fly to make it 8 very interesting combat.
 ''But of all the spiteful, wicked and un- compromising insects, save me from either yellowjacket a wasp. There is no getting away from them, and when they sting once they sting dozen times in different parts of the body. They keep right at it, and a man may try to hit them with stick or his hat all day and miss them every time. Wasps make their nests in the ceiling of room or the roof of barn. Hornets are generally found in clumps of fruit trees and yellow jackets in the stumps of trees, shrubbery or fences"