Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1889-09-19
ABOUT BEE sTlNeS.
The Ability OF Bees to DO Work Ate
Having Lost Their Strlngs.

Inc ADiuty OF Bees To DO work AFTER
Having Lost Their Strings.
A correspondent wishes TO know
whether bee can live and do work
after it has stung person. leaving its
sting; or II it dies, as is generally be-
lieved by many persons who keep
bees. Up to with the past ten years
nearly every one believed that bee
which had stung any one must surely
die. for in leaving the sting, rs the
honey bee nearly always does in sting
ing an ANIMAL a part OF the intestines
was supposed TO be left with the sting,
poison sack, etc, from which il was
argued that the bee could not live.
This seemed so reasonable that | for
merly believed that the idea which
prevailed was true, till one day after
"A bee had stung me leaving its sting,
IL came To the attack again aud again,
with all the fury and vengeance pos
sible for bee TO work itself up To.
getting in my hair and singing away
as only an angry bee can sing, which
will make the cold chills run up and
individual. AS this bee apparently
had no thought of dying, it was caught
and Gagged with two or three others
and kept week or so to see what
would become the matter AT the end
OF the week il was apparently just as
lively and healthy as any OF the rest,
when all OF the bees were set at liberty.
At another time, ia putting up
queens TO send away. In catching the
escort bees which were to go with the
queen, one of them stung me on the
end of one of my fingers, leaving its
sting, when it Immediately ran into the
cage. As did not wish to remove all
OF the bees and queen to get it out
let il go, soon after which the thought
came to me that here would be
chance to test the theory of the death
OF the bee from losing its sting, as this
queen was going to Texas, which Jour-
ney would require from eight to ten
days time. Accordingly | wrote to
the party TO whom they were sent, tell
ing him all about the matter aud ask
Ing him to take notice particularly
when the queen arrived and see if
there were any dead bees in the cage.
In due time he replied that the queen
arrived in splendid shape, and that
there was not dead bee in the cage
Several times since then ! have tried
similar ways to see if such bees as had
lost their stings were in any way in
convenienced thereby. and as far as
can tell, by means OF combining them
so as to know that | have the same
bee, can see no difference between
such bees and those which have
their stings as to length of life.
Whether they gather honey or
not, or whether they are allowed TO
live in the hive without their weapon
of defense is something which would
be next TO if not quite impossible to
tell, for in this case we have no means
OF keeping track of an individual Doe.
As bees are not tolerated in the hive.
which are in any way imperfect, it
might not be unreasonable to suppose
that the perfect ones might drive oil
such an one which had lost its sting,
as being incapable of defense were the
hive attacked That il was not the
design Of nature for the bee TO al
ways lose its sting when defending its
hive. is manifest whore bees repel
robbers TO the extent Of hundreds ana
thousands of slaughtered ones when
in such cases not one bee in one thou
sand loses its sting, but keeps it
so that it can slaughter bee after bee
till the attacking party Is repeled or
they lose their lives in the combat.
AT times they do lose their stings Ia
other bees out not often. a theory
has lately been advanced that bees use
their stings in ripening honey aud for
polishing the Gaping to the same,
but so far the most OF our practical
apiarists consider the same as fala-
cious. have carefully watched for
any proof TO substantiate the truth of
this theory, yet SO far can SEQ nothing
which even points that way Amer-
lean Rural Home
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