io4 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



think of something else besides their 

 stinging, of kindness and gentleness 

 and love for them, they seem to recip- 

 rocate, although they will not always 

 do so. If they are too much disposed 

 to sting you, puff a little smoke into 

 the hive, not to stupify them, but to 

 give them something else to think 

 about. Smoke tells them that a catas- 

 trophe has come, and that the only 

 thing to do is to eat, drink and be 

 merry, for their home will soon be de- 

 stroyed by a forest fire. They gorge 



And yet all I have said must be 

 taken with certain painful exceptions 

 that only experience can teach. Some 

 bees are vindictively ugly at swarm- 

 ing time and, as I once heard a far- 

 mer express it, "Those durned critters 

 would sting the hair off a dog, though 

 they are hanging there in a quiet mass 

 so innocent-like on the branch of the 

 tree." Bees are at times angered by 

 smoke and the more they are smoked 

 the worse they will fight. 



You have all probably heard of the 



BOYS FROM GREENWICH AT THE ARCADIA APIARY, TAKING THEIR FIRST LESSON IN 



OPENING A HIVE OF BEES. 



themselves with honey and are then 

 less able to sting, not only because 

 they are happy, but because they are 

 unable to curve the abdomen in that 

 spiteful, vixenish manner so necessary 

 to drive in the sting effectivelv- 



A similar condition arises at swarm- 

 ing time. The bees rill their honey 

 stomach with honey, and are then not 

 only in a kinder frame of mind, but 

 have greater diffculty in getting into 

 the stinging attitude. Further, there 

 is not so much reason for stinging. 

 After they have left the hive, they have 

 no permanent abiding place; they have 

 no home to protect. They are in an 

 uncertain frame of mind. 



henpecked man who told his friends 

 that he would hang around the house 

 for a while until he could ascertain trie 

 state of affairs within. If all were calm 

 and serene and smiling he would en- 

 ter, but if temper were crossgrained lie 

 preferred to go to the barn and do the 

 chores. 



The skilled bee-keeper exercises, es- 

 pecially in making exhibitions before 

 a crowd, some of the same kind of di- 

 plomacy, though the admiring crowd 

 is not aware of the fact. He says to 

 them /'Come on, I will show you how 

 gentle the honeybees are." He goes to 

 one hive, and the guards dart out vin- 

 dictively. He says nothing about it, 



