96 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



some experience to placidly lift out a frame, covered 

 with what at first sight looks like a dark, boiling, 

 viscous fluid, fit only for a witch's cauldron, but 

 which soon to the startled eye resolves itself into bee 

 particles. If the brood must be examined or queen 

 cells found, then it becomes necessary to get rid of 

 this seething, enveloping bee-mass, which is done in 

 a manner that seems like nothing less than tempting 

 Providence. The brood-frame is seized firmly in 

 the operator's hands, and held about waist high in 

 front of the hive, then let to drop, hands and all, 

 swiftly to within about six inches of the doorstep of 

 the hive, then suddenly jerked back again; the bees 

 being heavy and receiving the downward impetus, 

 keep right on as a man keeps on when his bicycle 

 stops suddenly in a rut with this difference that the 

 bees land safely at the entrance of the hive, into 

 which they scamper as soon as their dazed wits will 

 allow. One would naturally think that the bees 

 would attack the active agent of this indignity, but 

 while bees are ever ready to fight recognised enemies, 

 they have evolved no plan of action which is equal 

 to a cataclysm, except to get under cover as soon as 

 possible. Thus being shaken from their founda- 

 tions is to them what an earthquake is to us, and the 

 attitude of Riley's boy is theirs. 



"Where's a boy a-goin' an' what's he goin' to do, 

 An' how's he goin' to do it, when the world bu'sts through ?" 



Thus it is that among the first accomplishments 

 of the apiarist is the one that enables him skilfully 



