The cells which are used for the storage of honey generally slant
upward slightly to help keep the honey from running out. Queen-cells
are made only when a new queen is to be reared.
Can a Bee Sting?
It is true that bees cannot bite and kick like horses, nor can they
hook like cattle; but most people, after having had an experience with
bee-stings for the first time, are inclined to think they would rather
be bitten, kicked, and hooked, all together, than risk a repetition of
that keen and exquisite anguish which one feels as he receives the full
contents of the poison-bag.
What Happens When a Bee Stings?
After the bee has penetrated the flesh on your hand, and worked the
sting so deeply into the flesh as to be satisfied, it begins to find
that it is a prisoner, and to consider means of escape. It usually
gets smashed at about this stage of proceedings, unless it succeeds
in tearing the sting--poison-bag and all--from the body; however, if
allowed to do the work quietly it seldom does this, knowing that such a
proceeding seriously maims it for life, if it does not kill it. After
pulling at the sting to see that it will not come out, it seems to
consider the matter a little, and then commences to walk around it,
in a circle, just as if it were a screw it was going to turn out of a
board. If you will be patient and let it alone, it will get it out by
this very process, and fly off unharmed. I need not tell you that it
takes some heroism to submit patiently to all this maneuvering. The
temptation is almost ungovernable, while experiencing the intense pain,
to say, while you give it a clip, “There, you little beggar, take that,
and learn better manners in future.”
Well, how does every bee know that it can extricate its sting by
walking around it? Some would say it is instinct. Well, I guess it is;
but it seems to me, after all, that it “sort o’ remembers” how its
ancestors have behaved in similar predicaments for ages and ages past.
Odor of the Bee-sting Poison.
After one bee has stung you, if you remain where you were stung, the
smell of the poison, or something else, will be pretty sure to get more
stings for you, unless you are very careful. It has been suggested that
this is owing to the smell of the poison, and that the use of smoke
will neutralize this scent. This probably is so.
What Should I Do If I Am Stung by a Bee?
The blade of a knife, if one is handy, may be slid under the
poison-bag, and the sting lifted out, without pressing a particle more
of the poison into the wound. When a knife-blade is not handy, push
the sting out with the thumb or finger nail in much the same way. It
is quite desirable that the sting should be taken out as quickly as
possible, for if the barbs once get a hold in the flesh, the muscular
contractions will rapidly work the sting deeper and deeper. Sometimes
the sting separates, and a part of it (one of the splinters, so to
speak) is left in the wound; it has been suggested that we should be
very careful to remove every one of these tiny points; but after trying
many times to see what the effect would be, I have concluded that they
do but little harm, and that the main thing is, to remove the part
containing the poison-bag before it has emptied itself completely into
the wound.
Why Are Some Races White, and Others Black, Yellow and Brown?
What you eat determines your color, according to Bergfield, a German
investigator. Not necessarily that you yourself could effect any change
in color, but your ancestors for thousands of years have unconsciously
been influenced by the food they have eaten and the drinks they have
drunk.
For instance, the original men were black, says Bergfield. Their chief
diet was of vegetables and fruits, he explains, and these same food
contains manganates that are not unlike iron. Dark browns and blacks
result from this combination. It is a scientific fact that negroes who
drink milk and eat meat are never as dark as those who eat vegetables.
Again, Mongols are yellow because they have descended from races that
were fruit-eating, and who, making their way into the deepest nooks
and widest plains of Asia, developed into shepherds and lived largely
on milk. Of course it is now known that milk contains a certain
percentage of chlorine, and has a decidedly bleaching effect. In the
case of Caucasians, they are said to have become white by adding salt
to their foods, which common salt is a strong chloride, and powerful in
bleaching the skin.
[Illustration: A HIDE HOUSE]