. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 1921 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 101 the cage, disliking to liaiiiUc the wings of virgins. Suddenly a sharp sting was felt inside the hand which held tlie virgin. So sharp was the pain that 1 involuntarily slapped my quickly opened hand against my thigh. A virgin queen dropped in the process to the ground, but I could find no worker bee. I said to my son who was helping me, "1 really think that I was stung by a queen- bee ; A few days later, while caging an- other lot of virgins, the same thing happened. And again my quick in- voluntary moveme
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 1921 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 101 the cage, disliking to liaiiiUc the wings of virgins. Suddenly a sharp sting was felt inside the hand which held tlie virgin. So sharp was the pain that 1 involuntarily slapped my quickly opened hand against my thigh. A virgin queen dropped in the process to the ground, but I could find no worker bee. I said to my son who was helping me, "1 really think that I was stung by a queen- bee ; A few days later, while caging an- other lot of virgins, the same thing happened. And again my quick in- voluntary movement prevented me from stating with absolute certainty that no worker was present, though none was seen as the queen fell to the ground. In neither case was any sting left in the wound and the pain was iden- tical with that of a worker sting. It was possibly a little more sharp at first, but it did not last long, and very quickly changed from the usual sensation into an itch. I was now positive that I had been twice stung by queen-bees, but I realized that mj' proof was not beyond doubt. The nursery cage might in each case have had a worker clinging to it unseen, and when I shook the queen into my hand this worker went in unseen by me. Fortunately, I was privileged with a third trial. This happened a few days later as some 80 queens were being caged. This time I so far con- trolled my involuntary inovement as to open my hand quickly, and there was the queen—alone— and she was just in the act of withdrawing her sting from my skin. I now knew beyond all doubt that I had been stung three separate times by virgin queens. I also knew that many oth- ers had tried to sting my hand, for I would have the itching sensation and also the smell of the royal poison on the palm of my hand. All three stings were inflicted upon the thin skin between the fingers, suggesting that the queen would more fre- quently sting but for the toughness of the skin of the human hand. Connecticut. TOO MUCH H
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
