A popular acquaintance with the habits of bees is very important. Such
an accident as the following, related in the Scotsman newspaper, could
scarcely have occurred if the victim had learned a little on this
subject:--
"On Thursday, while Dr. Bonthron, of West Linton, Peebleshire, was
being driven along the road leading from Garvald to the railway
station at Dolphinton, he was attacked by a swarm of bees, apparently
newly 'cast-off,' and so severely stung on the face and head as to
be unable to attend to his duties for the present. His face and head
became dreadfully swollen and disfigured an hour or two after the
occurrence, the eyes being firmly closed, and the face and throat
greatly swollen and discoloured, while a considerable amount of fever
has set in from the effects of the poison--in fact, but for the
precautions taken, it is probable that the case would have proved
fatal. The driver of the vehicle was also severely stung on several
parts of the head and neck, and only escaped further mischief by a
timely use of whip and rein. The queen-bee of the caste must have
flown directly on Dr. Bonthron's head, from the instantaneousness
with which he was perfectly covered by the bees: and it is supposed
that the motion of the vehicle must have irritated the insects to
use their stings. Upwards of thirty bee-stings were taken out of Dr.
Bonthron's face, neck, and head."
Had Dr. Bonthron remained perfectly still, the bees would not have been
irritated, and they would have discovered there was no room for a swarm of
bees in his hat; and if the driver could have distinguished the queen-bee,
and quietly removed and laid her on the hedge-side, no catastrophe would
have occurred. Bees are perfectly harmless in swarming. But of course any
attempt to drive them off from their queen by violence never can be made
with impunity.
But in the swarming season it is most expedient that nobody but their
bee-master should take any share in hiving a swarm; for so nervous are
most people at the presence of ten thousand stings, that they will
indiscreetly and ignorantly irritate such members of the young family as
may accidentally alight on them.