Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-07-03
THE APIARY.
something About Bee stIngs.

A correspondent wishes to know
whether bee can live and do work after
it has stung person, leaving its sting;
or If it dies, as is generally believed by
many persons who keep bees. Up to
within the past ten years nearly every
one believed that a bee which had stung
any one must surely die, for in leaving
the sting, as the honey bee nearly al
ways does in stinging an animal. part
of the intestines was supposed to be
left with the sting, poison sac, ETC.,
from which it was argued that the bee
could not live. This seemed so rea-
sonable that I formerly believed that the
idea which prevailed was true, till one
day after a bee had stung me, leaving
its sting, it came to the attack again and
again, with all the fury and vengeance
possible for a 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 down
the back of the most hardened individ-
ual. 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
of the matter. At the end of the week
it was apparently just as lively and
healthy as any of the rest, when all of
the bees were set at liberty.
At another time, in 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 i'm
i mediately ran into the cage. As did
! not wish to remove all the bees and
queen to get it out, let it go, soon
after which the thought came to me that
| here would be q chance to test the
theory of the death of the bee from los
| ing its sting, as-this queen was going to
/ Texas, which journey would require
| from eight to ten days time. Accord
ingly wrote to the party to whom they
we're sent, telling him about the mat
| ter, and asking him to take notice par
ticularly when the queen arrived and
! see ii their 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 il such bees as
had lost their stings we're in any way
inconvenienced thereby, and as far as /
can tell by confning them SO as to know
that have the same bee, l 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 the individual bee.
As bees are not tolerated in the hive,
which are in any ways imperfect. it
might not be unreasonable to suppose
that the perfect ones might drive off
such q one which had lost its sting, as
being incapable of defense were the
hive attacked. That it was not the de-
| sign of nature for the bee to always
lose it's sting when defending its hive,
is manifest where bees repel robbers to
the extent of hundreds and thousands
of slaughtered ones, when in such cases
not one bee in one thousand loses its
sting, but keeps it SO that it can slaugh-
ter bee after bee till the attacking party
is repelled or they lose their lives in
the combat. At times they do lose their
stings in other bees, but not often. A
theory has lately been advanced that
bees use their stings in ripening honey,
and for polishing the Gaping to the
same, but SO far the most of our praeti-
cal apiarists consider the same as fai-
/ lacious. have carefully watched fol
any proof to substantiate the truth ot
this theory, yet so far can see nothing
which even points that way.-AmerscGa
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